Ontario MPP plans to look at what other jurisdictions are doing to stop gas-and-dash incidents
A Toronto gas station attendant was killed on Sept. 15 after being struck by a customer’s fleeing car, according to the city’s police.
A man filled up his SUV at a Shell station when he allegedly attempted to leave the station without paying for the gas, police say. According to reports, the customer put $112 in gas in his car before taking off.
The 44-year-old man working at the gas station, Jayesh Prajapati, was struck by the vehicle as he attempted to stop it from leaving. The man suffered life-threatening injuries and was transported to hospital, where he died.
The Ontario government has a “shared responsibility” to look at how to make gas stations safer workplaces, says Premier Dalton McGuinty. “Shell is saddened by this senseless loss of life at one of our retail sites,” the company said in a statement. “Shell's top priority is the safety of staff and customers, and under no circumstance are sales associates or any other retail employee to intervene during criminal activity.”
“One of the things that we owe that family and that gentleman in particular is to take a long, hard look at what lessons we might draw from this,” McGuinty said.
Sales associates are taught to observe suspicious activity to assist police, the statement also said.
This isn’t the first incident in Ontario. Last May, 62-year-old Hashem Atifeh Rad was hit and dragged by a vehicle at a Mississauga, Ont., gas station after he tried to stop a driver for not paying. Five months later, a 22-year-old man was arrested and charged with criminal negligence causing death, fleeing the scene of a fatal accident, theft under $5,000 and breach of recognizance.
Pay-before-you-pump
In 2008, British Columbia adopted a “pay-before-you-pump” regulation. The law, formally called Grant’s Law, was named after Grant De Patie, a gas attendant in Maple Ridge, B.C., who was dragged to his death after attempting to stop a driver from stealing $12 worth of gas in 2005.
Ontario law
Ontario’s police chief association was considering a resolution to urge the provincial government to implement mandatory pre-payment at gas pumps last June. It was ultimately sidelined because the organization said the issue should be handled by government and industry.
Mike Colle, a Liberal MPP who serves the riding and who happened on the scene shortly after the worker was killed, told the Toronto Star he is going to research other jurisdictions in North America to see “if there’s somebody who’s found a way to deal with this gas-and-dash.”
