Toronto’s new transit shelters may be a dangerous place to take cover during high winds, when powerful gusts can cause glass side panels to shatter.

An email from Jorhan W. blew in Friday with “Another TTC shelter explodes in wind,” in the subject line, after the Thursday night storm that lashed the GTA with high winds and freezing rain.

“On Jan. 20, the wind storm blew a bus shelter apart,” on Goodwood Park Cr., near Eastdale Ave.,” Jorhan said.

“Today, the new shelter in its place has also been blown apart by the wind. It’s even worse this time and glass is everywhere.

“If someone was inside, they could be seriously injured or killed. Are TTC shelters safe?”

Exploding transit shelters rocket to the top of our interest list. We went there right away and met two employees of the contractor that maintains shelters, who were sweeping up shattered glass.

One said it’s the third time he’s gone to the Goodwood Park shelter to clean up glass after a windstorm, adding that other glass shelters have also shattered during high winds.

The glass on three sides of the shelter was missing, which seems incredible, given the thickness and durability of the panels, until the maintenance guy showed us how it happens.

He pushed his broom handle up against the bottom of the angled glass roof and was able to lift it slightly, saying that when a powerful wind gust blows in through the entrance, it lifts the roof and the metal arms attached to the bottom of it.

He then pointed to brackets along the framework at the top of the shelter, explaining that they hold the glass side panels in place. When a wind gust that lifts the roof subsides, the metal arms crash down onto the top edges of the panels, shattering them, he said.

Shelters that have blown up are in locations more likely to be buffeted by wind, he said, and that a high-rise building next to the Goodwood shelter creates wind swirls that add strength to the gusts in a windstorm.

It amounts to a flaw in design that could make at least some transit shelters a poor place to take cover in a windstorm. But who knows which ones?

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If anyone else knows of a shelter with broken glass after last week’s storm, tell us about it.

STATUS: Carly Hinks, the city’s manager of street furniture, sent us an email saying, “This is the first time I am hearing of this issue, and am also concerned,” adding that she’s investigating it.