Construction metal hits SUV downtown

A woman was unhurt Tuesday morning when a piece of metal fell from a downtown Calgary construction site onto herSUV as she drove past.

The accident happened at Ninth Avenue S.W. between Third and Fourth streets at around 8:30 a.m. at the Eighth Avenue Place office tower.

The metal binding about three metres long and half a millimetre thick left a scrape across the hood of the woman's Acura SUV.

Calgary police said the lane the SUV was travelling in shouldn't have been open.

"The lane is normally closed at that time of the morning, but for whatever reason and that will be determined through further investigation there were no flagmen blocking that lane off at the time," said duty Insp. Paul Stacey.

The driver said she believes the metal piecebounced off a pedestrian overpass and onto her car.

Work halted on 6 floors

Alberta's Occupational Health and Safety, whichis investigating the incident, issued an order to halt work on six floors of the project until all building materialsare secured totheir satisfaction, said department spokesman Barrie Harrison.

Investigators are trying to determine which one of three contractors the metal banding came from. If found guilty of violating safety regulations, a contractor could face fines.

EllisDon which is building the 49-storey tower said it's started its own probe.

"Thank god there was nobody that was hurt and we will inform as we do the investigation as to the results of what we inspect," said Mark Condon, assistant superintendent of EllisDon.

In April, high winds sent a piece of plywood crashing down from the same project.No one was hurt in that incident.