The TTC has pleaded guilty to one count of violating workplace safety legislation in the 2017 death of track maintenance worker Tom Dedes.

At a hearing Tuesday in a small courtroom on the second floor of Old City Hall, prosecutors working on behalf of the Ministry of Labour agreed to drop two other charges laid against the transit agency in Dedes’ death.

As part of its guilty plea, the TTC agreed to pay a fine of $265,000, which was the amount prosecutors recommended. Including a mandatory 25 per cent victim surcharge, the total amount the transit agency will pay is $331,250.

Each of the charges, which are non-criminal provincial offences, carried a maximum fine of $500,000 at the time they were laid.

Speaking outside the courtroom, Tom’s brother George Dedes said the TTC’s plea, which came with a promise to improve worker safety, would give his family some closure after two years of anguish.

“It signals that they’re taking steps to address the issues, which is good news,” he said.

“You want some accountability. They’ve done what they had to do. Honestly what else could they do? They can’t bring him back. They can’t change what happened.”

Dedes, an 18-year TTC veteran who was 50 at the time of his death, suffered major injuries in an accident at the TTC’s McCowan Yard in Scarborough at around 2:18 a.m. on Oct. 1, 2017.

According to an agreed-upon statement of facts that was read into the court record, at the time of the accident Dedes and a crew of workers were preparing to head out on a job to replace a section of track on the Scarborough RT.

They were loading equipment from a pickup truck onto a work railcar, but as they were about to leave they discovered a power pack — a hydraulic unit used in track welding — on the flatbed of the car was dead.

They moved the truck closer to the car to try to jump-start the power pack by attaching it to the truck engine with jumper cables. The cables were too short however, and they had to lift the pack off the flatbed using a crane.

Once it was successfully boosted, they hoisted the pack back onto the flatbed, and some of the workers got into the pickup truck.

The car operator’s view was obstructed and he couldn’t see the truck. He began advancing the car just as Dedes was walking around the back of the truck to the rear driver’s-side door.

Because the rail car was on a curved track, its tail end swung out and struck Dedes, crushing him against the pickup. He died in hospital eight days later.

Last September, nearly a year after his death, the ministry charged the TTC with three offences under the Occupational Health and Safety Act, including violating regulations that require employers to ensure adequate lighting, and to provide markings or barriers to protect workers from vehicles.

Those two charges were withdrawn Tuesday, and the TTC pleaded guilty to the third charge: failing to take every reasonable precaution to protect workers — specifically failing to provide a qualified employee to monitor work car movements.

The TTC says Dedes’ death has already prompted it to improve safety at its McCowan Yard and other facilities. Among the steps the agency has taken are upgrading lighting, installing visual markings and a barrier around the railcar track area, and retraining employees. It has also strengthened procedures to have work railcar operators communicate with a foreperson and transit control to confirm when it’s safe to move the vehicle.

Justice Sheila Ray told the court that the TTC having already implemented better safety policies was a factor in her not imposing the maximum fine.

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“We’re really working to improve the culture of the safety at the TTC,” said agency CEO Rick Leary, who was among a half dozen senior TTC executives who attended Tuesday’s hearing.

Leary said he felt personally affected by Dedes’ death.

“It’s heartbreaking. It really is heartbreaking, the loss of a family member at the TTC. I always have this habit of telling people we’re going to do better, and we are.”

Carlos Santos, the president of Amalgamated Transit Union Local 113, which represents TTC employees, said in a statement that the agency’s guilty plea was “further evidence the TTC must do more to protect its workers.”

He accused the agency of “unnecessarily prolonging this case” by not pleading sooner, and called on the TTC to do more to support traumatized workers.

“Thoughts of that night ... have caused many sleepless nights and stressful days for those involved,” Santos said.

Dedes was the third TTC worker to die on the job between 2007 and 2017. All three were killed in incidents involving railcars while working on overnight shifts.

In one of the other cases, the 2007 death of Tony Almeida, the ministry also charged the TTC with workplace safety offences. The agency pleaded guilty and paid a $250,000 fine.

In the 2012 death of Peter Pavlovski, the ministry found minor violations of workplace safety rules but declined to lay charges.

The TTC also pleaded guilty to workplace safety charges in 2007 in relation to a carbon monoxide leak that injured eight employees the year before. In that case the agency was fined more than $200,000.

Although the TTC won’t face further charges in Dedes’ death, Tuesday’s verdict likely isn’t the end of the matter. The victim’s family has said they intend to launch a civil suit against the transit agency, which they maintained Tuesday.

The TTC has also yet to publish the results of its own investigation into Dedes’ death. Agency spokesperson Stuart Green said it plans to release the final version of the report in the coming months.