Worker injured after 2nd light rail incident in 7 days

A worker was rushed to hospital after reportedly being "severely injured" in the LRT tunnel in downtown Ottawa Saturday afternoon, Ottawa Fire Services said.

It is the second reported LRT workplace injury in the last seven days.

Fire crews responded to what they said was a "medical emergency" at the LRT tunnel near the intersection of Kent and Queen streets at 4:42 p.m.

Ottawa Fire Servicessaid they received reports the worker had been seriously hurt and launcheda "full technical rescue." Hewas sent to hospital with unspecified injuries, they said.

Ministry of Labour has been notified

Based on initial reports, the male worker was struckby a hose that was supplying concrete, according toan emailed statement from Rideau Transit Group,the consortium behind Ottawa's $2-billion light rail line.

RTG spokesperson SylviaBoyadjian saidthe man "walked out of the tunnel of his own volition" and was taken to hospital.The extent of the man's injuries was not released.

The Ministry of Labour has been notified of the incident as emergency crews continue to investigate.

RTG said work continues as scheduled on all LRT locations in the tunnel.

'Safety is a priority forRideauTransit Group...'- SylviaBoyadjian

"Safety is a priority for Rideau Transit Group (and OLRT-Constructors). We continue to comply with all industry standards in terms of incident management and notification (such as notifying the Ministry of Labour when an incident/injury warrants)," RTG said in its statement.

There are three full-time safety coordinators assigned to the tunnel who do safety inspections twice per day, according to RTG, which noted its lost-time injury rates are better than the industry average.

"At any given time up to 1100 employees (this includes subcontractors) are currently working on the project. To date over 4.9 million hours have been worked on the project. We have had 11 lost time injuries for an LTI rate of 0.32."

Second workplace injury in seven days

On March 11, a worker fell while installing rebarat the Parliament station. No serious injuries were reported in that case, according to RTG.

The worker was taken to hospital and has since returned to work.