The Toronto Transit Commission has identified an employee who was killed when he and a co-worker were hit by a subway work car north of Yorkdale station early Friday morning.

Peter Pavlovski, 49, was a subway track and tunnel foreman who had worked for the TTC for 22 years.

Pavlovski was working on a northbound section of the Spadina subway line, north of Yorkdale station, when he and another crew member were struck by a southbound subway work car around 4:45 a.m.

The second worker was treated for serious but not life-threatening injuries to his head, TTC chief executive officer Andy Byford told reporters near the scene this morning.

That person has now been released from the hospital, Byford told a noon-hour news conference.

EMS said the driver of the work car was also taken to hospital from the scene, suffering extreme shock. Byford said he is completely devastated by the incident.

The TTC suspended subway service between the Downsview and Lawrence West stations and is running shuttle buses in place of those trains.

However, the entire subway system was left short of trains because those parked at the Wilson yard, south of Downsview station, were stranded north of the accident scene, said TTC spokeswoman Milly Bernal.

Some Bloor-Danforth trains were rerouted to the Yonge-University-Spadina line, said Bernal.

Commuters were advised to expect “severe problems” on the Yonge-University-Spadina line and general delays on the Bloor-Danforth subway line.

Byford said the accident left his organization in “a complete sense of shock.”

He said the employees were working on the tracks when they were hit by a work train that approached from them from the opposite direction.

Many TTC workers were stationed at Wilson, directing a constant stream of shuttle buses going north and south.

“I can’t speak about it,” said one worker, who declined to give his name. “These people are very close me,” he said. “This is a difficult time already.”

The TTC is collaborating with police and Ontario’s Ministry of Labour, Byford said.

Amalgamated Transit Workers Local 113 president Bob Kinnear called the incident “a great tragedy.”

Kinnear said TTC employees who were at the scene are receiving counselling.

“Safety will always be our number one priority,” said Byford. “Which is why, to have such an incident happen today is so shocking for everyone.”

The last time a TTC worker died was in April 2007, when 38-year-old Antonio (Tony) Almeida was killed while working with a crew removing asbestos from a tunnel on the Yonge subway line near Eglinton station. He was driving a flatbed work car at the time.

A year later, the TTC was fined $200,000 for breaking provincial workplace safety laws in connection with Almeida’s death.

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