News Safety & Risk Management
Videos of rigger dangling at downtown construction site go viral

Videos have been circulating online since Tuesday, showing a construction worker dangling high in the air from a crane load at a downtown Toronto construction site.

One 54-second snippet of video, apparently recorded from the point-of-view of another worker, was posted to Reddit on Wednesday morning.

A witness standing off-camera can be heard saying: “Oh my God, how the f–k did this happen?”

Jessica Bertrand of Modern Niagara Group Inc. told OHS Canada, “On July 5th, an incident involving one of our employees took place at a job site located on Front Street. They were entangled with a tagline after hooking a load and were safely lowered to the work surface. Fortunately, he was not seriously injured.

“The safety of all of our employees, our partners, and the community is our top priority. We are working with all appropriate authorities and the incident is currently under investigation,” stated Bertrand.

Videos of the same occurrence recorded from different angles were also being shared on other social media channels.

Go here to see the videos of the incident.

A spokesperson for the construction company in charge of the project, PCL, confirmed to CBC News that an “incident took place” at the site on Tuesday.

“Fortunately he was safely lowered to the work surface and not seriously injured.”

(with files from OHS Canada & CBC News)