Swan Struck In Traffic On Queen’s Quay But What Really Happened?

It’s a tale of two witnesses, and it’s hard to know which one to believe. But it concerns one of the most innocent of all creatures and the ongoing vulnerability that takes place whenever the big city meets the call of the wild.

Aubree Peardon was having lunch at Queen’s Quay and York around 4pm Monday afternoon and couldn’t believe her eyes. As she sat looking out the window, she claims a white swan came ambling across the street from the shoreline and straight into the city’s busy rush hour traffic.

What happened next wasn’t a pretty sight. She insists she saw the big bird get hit by a streetcar as it rushed towards Union Station. And she was outraged, alleging the driver didn’t stop or make any attempt to sound a horn to frighten the bird out of the way.

“The swan got up a couple of times and you could tell it was in a lot of pain,” she recalls. [“It] was lying on the road and the other TTC drivers couldn’t go by, cause it was blocking traffic.”

She then called the police, who referred her to Toronto Animal Control. They sent an investigator out to check on the bird, and the worker cradled the wounded swan in a blanket and took it away to the Toronto Wildlife Centre.

At least seven streetcars were stuck in a backlog as the wounded creature was examined and treated at the scene.

But exactly how it happened is another story. Aubree is insistent that the streetcar driver callously struck the bird and seemed worried only about keeping to his schedule.

But that’s not what the TTC says actually took place. A spokesman tells CityNews.ca a Commission inspector was on the scene within minutes and found the swan was already on the tracks and injured when the streetcar hit it.

He suggests it’s possible the bird came from one of the nearby nests, which are common in the area, and that the driver either didn’t see the fowl in time or simply couldn’t stop on the still slick roads.

But there was no intent to hurt it and he may not have even been aware of what happened.

But that’s not what Aubree saw. She maintains she spoke to the inspector about what she witnessed and was ignored. “He hit the swan and kept on driving off,” she alleges. She’s incensed about the incident but knows there’s not much she can do. But she wanted someone to know. “Somebody has to care,” she concludes.

This story does not have a happy ending. Workers at the Wildlife Centre still aren’t sure how the swan sustained its injuries, but they do say they’re positive about one thing. “It takes a lot to break a swan’s wing,” Nathalie Karvonen tells CityNews.ca.

After examining the injuries carefully, veterinarians determined that the bones were too badly damaged, and they were forced to put the beautiful white creature down late Monday.