Woman dies after getting trapped in Toronto clothing donation bin: police

Toronto police say a woman has died after becoming trapped inside a clothing donation bin.

Const. Jenifferjit Sidhu says officers were called to a downtown location early Tuesday morning after receiving calls that the 35-year-old woman was stuck inside the bin.

Sidhu says fire services cut the donation box open in order to help rescue the woman, but she was pronounced dead on scene.

Her death comes on the heels of a similar incident in British Columbia in which a 34-year-old man got stuck in the opening of a bin in West Vancouver.

The Toronto woman’s death also marks at least the eighth such incident since 2015.

The rash of deaths has prompted the municipality of West Vancouver to seal clothing bins and investigate safer options for accepting donations.

A professor at the University of British Columbia has also tasked fourth-year engineering students with redesigning the clothing bins, which some advocates for the homeless describe as “death traps.”

Jeremy Hunka of Union Gospel Mission in Vancouver said the numerous deaths, five of which took place in B.C., are unacceptable.

Last November, a 32-year-old man was discovered dead inside a donation box in Cambridge, Ont., and a man in his 20s died in a similar container in Calgary in July 2017.

Sidhu said the identity of the latest victim in Toronto has not yet been released. She said the matter is not considered suspicious and no criminal investigation is underway.

The Canadian Press