Sidewalk Plates Shocking People and Their Pets in Toronto

Toronto Hydro's problems with "stray voltage" mounted over the weekend with reports that another five individuals and three dogs had received shocks but had not been injured after stepping on the city's aging metal handwells.

The utility received six calls on Saturday and one yesterday to a hot line it set up to report such incidents. Sean Borden reported that in the summer he and his dog, Mocha, both got a jolt after stepping over a handwell in the east end, just around the corner from where last week a pupil at Regent Park/Duke of York Junior Public School was zapped, but uninjured.

Regent Park residents will be spared a shocking experience on their next neighbourhood walk.

After hydro officials learned the Sun was investigating reports Saturday that a handwell -- at Dundas St. E., just east of River St. -- was giving several people and their pets electrical shocks, crews fixed the problem.

"They went out (Saturday) night and they did find voltage on top of a cover," Toronto Hydro spokesman Karen Evans said yesterday. "They've made the area safe, now."