TORONTO

Do you know the victim or her family? Emailjenny.yuen@sunmedia.caor call our City Desk at 416-947-2211.

A warehouse worker near where a woman in her 50s was killed after being struck by a Staples sign in Monday night’s storm said he complained to the retailer about their sign.

A red Staples sign, measuring around 4.5 metres by 1.5 metres, lay on the ground on Tuesday, cordoned off with yellow police tape, hours after it allegedly struck a woman on a west-end street.

“It was like that for months and months,” said the employee of Family Communications Warehouse, who did not wish to be identified for fear of retribution.

“You could see it; some days when the winds were picking up, you could see it come up level and come down again. I don’t know if they were hinges broken. They were told months ago about it ... nobody seemed to do anything about it.”

Police arrived at a plaza at St. Clair Ave. W. and Keele St. around 7 p.m. Monday and found the woman suffering from injuries to her head and neck area.

The woman was moved to another area of the parking lot — deemed safer from debris whipped up from high winds — where emergency crews began performing CPR on her.

But EMS couldn’t resuscitate her and she died at the scene.

Nina Sampat, Staples’ national director of operations, said there is regular maintenance conducted on the company’s outdoor signage, but couldn’t cite the maintenance schedule because “we’re still investigating.”

“Our thoughts are with the family and their loved ones and we’re doing whatever we can to fully co-operate with police in the investigation,” Sampat said.

The company decided after the incident to remove the sign from the other other side of the post for safety precautions.

Other workers said they had heard the woman was of Chinese descent and was out buying batteries, perhaps in preparation for any power outages from post-tropical storm Sandy.

Forensics officers continued their investigation Tuesday afternoon. Around 3 p.m., the Staples sign was hauled away on a police flatbed truck.

Police are not releasing the victim’s name as requested by her family.

“There were witnesses, but we’re appealing to any witnesses that haven’t spoken to us to call,” Toronto Police Const. Wendy Drummond said. “We’re trying to get an idea of where the victim was coming from and what was happening in the area at the time.”

Gaurav Sawhney, 30, who regularly frequents the area, said he was saddened to hear about the tragic incident.

“It’s unfortunate,” he said. “Timing’s a weird thing. It really sucks for the family who has to deal with it.”

Drummond said that now that the winds have died down, people should be on alert for falling branches, hydro wires or other debris.

“Because of the high winds we did experience, it would be a good idea to go around your property and check for any items that may have become loose and could pose a potential hazard,” she said.

Meanwhile, thousands were still without power in the city Tuesday.

As of 3 p.m., Toronto Hydro was still dealing with power outages for approximately 10,000 customers with 2,000 of those in the downtown core.