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Toronto Hydro to accelerate public safety program
TORONTO, Jan. 30 /CNW/ - Today, Toronto Hydro announced that it is further accelerating its contact voltage program, which already involves mobile voltage sweeps, the repair of defective equipment, and the introduction of new wiring and hand well standards. This additional action is being taken after we received a report that some children received a minor shock on January 29th, at a hand well in the Dundas Street and Sumach Street area. This information has not yet been confirmed. Toronto Hydro has immediately assigned all non-emergency crews to its contact voltage program. "All available resources are being assigned to finding and fixing equipment that poses a safety hazard," said David O'Brien, President and CEO, Toronto Hydro Corporation. "This operation will involve more than 600 employees, and is a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week operation." "We are committed to fixing this problem. All of our resources will be dedicated to this, in the interests of public safety", added Mr. O'Brien. Mobile voltage detection sweeps of all neighbourhoods will continue. The inspections and remediation will radiate from the downtown core out to all neighbourhoods. This will ensure that the oldest equipment is inspected and repaired first. We expect to have the older parts of Toronto completed by the end of February. As previously announced, mobile inspections have been underway for several weeks. Toronto Hydro had already undertaken an aggressive city-wide inspection following recent incidents involving two dogs that died after coming into contact with voltage. Toronto Hydro has a number of stakeholders who have historically connected to our assets. We will be reinforcing our standards to ensure the safety of the public going forward. We are reinforcing our protocol for the wiring found inside the hand wells. All wiring will be encased in rubber and plastic to create a water-tight barrier. It is our plan to communicate this protocol to all known electrical maintainers that access our hand wells, followed by work inspections to ensure the standards are followed. Toronto Hydro has established a hotline at 416-222-3773 for the public to report contact voltage concerns. David O'Brien, President and CEO, Toronto Hydro Corporation will be available today at 4 - 5 p.m. in the lobby of Toronto Hydro Headquarters located at 14 Carlton Street (Yonge and Carlton)