What time was it? 1:30 PM or thereabouts. It was drizzling somewhat and there just happened to be a streetcar going in the right direction (a rarity) so I took it to College and Yonge. Outside of College Park, on the southwest corner of the intersection was an ambulance, and on the way into the subway station, I heard someone say, “Move to the right. Move to the right, please.”
A man on a stretcher was being pushed by some paramedics, surrounded by some police officers, a firefighter (maybe), and a man in a maroon TTC uniform. The man on the stretcher may have had an oxygen mask on him, I’m not sure. I didn’t feel compelled to stare.
“Is he alive?” a man asked to no one in particular.
“I don’t know,” quipped someone in the group.
I would think that, at least at that moment, he was alive, although it might just be that he can’t be placed into a body bag until pronounced dead by a coroner. I don’t know the answer to that, but I do think I would be weirded out by the notion of passing by a dead man on my way home.
A few weeks before that, I was on my way home, having gotten on the subway in rush hour at Queen’s Park and gone round the loop. Approaching College station, I overheard something on the driver’s radio about a possible heart attack victim. At the station, a small crowd had gathered, presumably around the victim. One of the passengers boarding said, “Poor guy.”
The only other subway incident that I was in the vicinity of occurred at Queen’s Park station in the early afternoon. As I was going taking the north entrance into the station, a woman was telling everyone that the station was closed, that “someone jumped in front of the subway.”
Police surrounded and denied access to the station’s turnstiles, and when I surfaced on the south side of College street, there were two ambulances, some firetrucks and police cars outside the westbound streetcar stop. At the eastbound streetcar stop the same woman was telling others that the station was closed, adding, “Usually they do this during rush hour.” I boarded the streetcar and headed to College station.
On the subway, a public announcement informed all users of the Yonge-University-Spadina line that, due to a “track level personal injury” at Queen’s Park station. the entire University branch between Spadina and Union was shut down. Note that track level is not the same as platform level.
Tags: logistics, toronto, ttc
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