The Toronto Transit Commission has been fined $200,000 for breaking provincial workplace safety laws in the death of a subway worker.
Antonio (Tony) Almeida, 38, was killed in April 2007 while working with a crew that was removing asbestos from the tunnel on the Yonge subway north of Eglinton. He left his wife, Sonya, and two children.
Several other members of the 11-man crew were seriously injured.
The TTC pleaded guilty yesterday before Justice Robert Bigelow to a charge of failing to take every reasonable precaution for the protection of the worker.
This accident and others have set in motion a complete overhaul of TTC safety practices, chairman Adam Giambrone said yesterday.
Giambrone said the TTC’s safety culture is in the process of changing.
“We’ve got a lot of work to do, and we’ve just started,” Giambrone said.
The TTC lost nearly 21,000 work days due to injury in 2007 — up from just more than 15,000 work days in 2002.
