Family demands answers after death of construction worker at Eglinton Crosstown LRT site

A family is looking for answers after the death of a 38-year-old man working at an Eglinton Crosstown LRT construction site late last month.

On May 25, David McCluskey was working at the Crosstown’s Cedarvale Station site on Allen Road and Eglinton Avenue run by Crosslinx Transit Solutions — the consortium in charge of the Crosstown LRT project.

Shortly after 4 p.m., he was struck by a cement truck and died on scene. His family did not find out until more than four hours later.

“I don’t know how it can be that it was supposed to have happened between 4:00 and 4:15 p.m. in the afternoon and I’m finding out through a cousin at 8:30 p.m. at night,” his wife Nicole told CityNews.

Nicole says she got the call seconds before she picked up her phone to call David, who was usually home by that time. She thought he may have been running late because he stopped to do errands on the way home to Dundalk.

David was employed by Coco Paving, subcontracted by Crosslinx. The company was recently bought by GFL.

David’s cousin Cindy says her husband Myles is a foreman at Coco Paving but wasn’t there at the time of the incident. Around 8:30 p.m. Myles received the news that David had been run over by a cement truck via phone call from Coco Paving’s head of safety on site.

“She told him that Dave was no longer with us. And he was kind of like, ‘oh, what do you mean, did you fire him or something? And she’s like, no, there was an accident — he’s gone. He passed away,” explained Cindy.

Nicole called the safety representative to try and understand what happened.

“I talked to them and they literally handed their phone to a police sergeant [who] told me he would call me back in 20 minutes,” explained Nicole.

When she didn’t hear back, she called the officer back and was told there was a “mix up” with her address and an officer was not sent out to inform her of the death of her partner of 16 years.

David’s mother Carol adds that they were never properly informed of her son’s death or the circumstances surrounding it.

“They didn’t contact his wife, myself or any of our other family members,” she said.

Nicole adds that the day after David’s death the vice president of Coco Paving visited her along with a manager to offer condolences and provide Employee Assistance Program grief counselling papers, but did not have any further information about the incident.

“Some days later I called the vice president to ask him why I found out the way I did and ask more questions. All I got for an explanation was that it was a ‘shocking incident,'” she said. “Since that visit to the house, nobody from Coco has reached out to me, no updates have been provided.”

Carol says a number of different versions of the incident have surfaced in the days since David’s death, but without any confirmation from police or any other authorities, they are left with bits and pieces of information to try and piece together the chain of events.

David and Nicole had bought a house just two years ago and Nicole says David was the happiest he’d ever been.

“He was at the pinnacle of his life. He had accomplished so much, he was proud of what he was doing,” she said. “If you love someone, what do you want for them? You want them to reach that Zenith in their life and to have a quick death. He got those things, but the fact of the matter is I have to face the rest of my life without him now and I don’t know how to do that. I can’t tell you the magnitude of that loss.”

Safety concerns

David’s family says they have questions about the safety protocols in place on site.

Nicole says she spoke to the Officer in Charge (OIC) of the police investigation a few days after the incident and the officer informed her that David was not at fault.

“She could confirm for me that Dave was seated and he was stationary at the time of the collision. So he has absolutely no responsibility for what happened,” she said through tears. “It wasn’t like he was running around the job site. It’s not like he crossed into an area that was cordoned off that he wasn’t supposed to be in … he was seated … and he was performing a job, a work function. He wasn’t anywhere he wasn’t supposed to be, he wasn’t doing anything he wasn’t supposed to be doing.”

Investigation and notification

The Ministry of Labour is investigating the incident, with police traffic services assisting. Crosslinx has also launched their own internal investigation.

By way of explanation as to the way informing next-of-kin was handled, police told CityNews a number of steps must be taken to identify next-of-kin and it can sometimes take longer. If the next-of-kin lives outside Toronto, the police service in which they reside is tasked with informing them.

The Ministry of Labour has a year from the date of the incident to lay any charges. While they do not issue news releases when an investigation commences, if charges are laid, usually for penalties above $50,000, a bulletin is posted on the ministry’s website.

When it comes to notifying the family of the incident, Crosslinx said “The worker was an employee of a project subcontractor.  As the employer, the subcontractor was responsible for notifying the family. The subcontractor told us notification happened the evening of May 25.”

Crosslinx did not answer questions regarding the family’s concerns around safety protocols on site.

Coco Paving tells CityNews they are cooperating with the police and Ministry of Labour’s investigation and cannot comment further. They did not address CityNews’ questions regarding safety protocols on site or questions regarding how the family was notified.

They said, “Our thoughts and prayers continue to go out to David McCluskey’s family members, friends and his fellow employees. We continue to fully participate in all aspects of the Police and Ministry of Labour investigation and as such, cannot make any further comments.”