3 men, 1 firm fined for roles in separate worksite accidents
By Ansley Ng, TODAY | Posted: 18 November 2009 0732 hrs

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SINGAPORE: Three people and a construction firm have been fined by a district court on Tuesday, for their roles in two separate worksite accidents in which two workers died.

In the first case, Lin Tin Fook, site supervisor of AVA Global, was fined S$1,000 under the Workplace Safety and Health Act for flouting safety rules. His firm was fined S$80,000.

On April 20, construction worker Ramaiyan Manikandan, who was employed by another contractor, fell 10 metres through an opening on an upper level catwalk at Tampines 1 shopping mall. He died four days later.

Lin and AVA Global were taken to task for not reinstalling a wire mesh on the catwalk that was removed earlier, and for not putting up warning signs to prevent workers from going near the area where Mr Ramaiyan fell.

In the other case, worker Chua Yew Meng was killed on August 7, 2007 after he fell off the top of a lift carriage and plunged 13 floors down a lift shaft at the former Ocean Building.

Mr Chua was helping to dismantle the lift's guide rails, to be lowered to the bottom with a nylon rope on a pulley. But the rope, which had been previously damaged in a fire, gave way and in trying to avoid the falling objects, Mr Chua fell to his death.

Foreman Chua Tian Lok was fined S$50,000 for not replacing the burnt rope; he had instead merely tied the burnt ends together and continued using it.

Chua Kwak Swee, who runs the lift company that hired the deceased, was also fined S$50,000 for not stopping workers from working in the lift shaft when several safety features – such as barricades and two lifelines were missing.

Said Mr Silas Sng, director of the Manpower Ministry's Occupational Safety and Health Inspectorate: "In these two cases, the company and its supervisors blatantly disregarded basic and simple safety measures that should have been in place before any work at height is undertaken. The loss of these two lives could have easily been avoided."

He reiterated that the ministry would not hesitate to take action, and that errant contractors and companies can be fined up to S$500,000 and/or jailed up to two years.


- TODAY/so