Thankfully, nobody was injured after part of a pedestrian bridge collapsed in Toronto’s east end early Saturday morning, leaving a gaping hole and sending concrete to the ground. The bridge is 5 metres above the ground and is used by many children and parents to get to Crescent Town Elementary School.
“Mercifully it happened on a weekend morning and there were no kids or parents on or under it & no injuries,” Beaches-East York MPP Rima Berns-McGown tweeted. “It could have been catastrophic.”
The Toronto District School Board (TDSB) shares maintenance of the bridge with Pinedale Properties. According to CityTV, the part of the bridge that collapsed is owned by Pinedale. The TDSB has advised parents that the bridge is not accessible until further notice as it works with Pinedale properties to determine next steps.
For almost five years now, Fix Our Schools has been asking if Ontario’s infrastructure is safe for school children and if Ontario’s publicly-funded schools are safe for school children.
Malvern Collegiate Institute in Beaches-East York, needs $20.4-million in repairs. The urgent repairs this school building needs include new roofs, foundation, staircase repairs and replacement of fire protection systems, including sprinklers. With almost $16-billion of outstanding repairs in Ontario schools, of which $205.6-million exists in Beaches-East York schools, it is hard to imagine that some schools aren’t “accidents waiting to happen”.
All parties involved in building and maintaining any infrastructure – especially infrastructure used by children – must work together to ensure a high standard of safety and maintenance.