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Firm fined S$290,000 for multiple safety lapses resulting in death of employee

SINGAPORE – A piling and civil engineering company was fined S$290,000 after it was convicted for multiple safety lapses which resulted in the death of its employee two years ago.

An overview of the location where the accident happened.

An overview of the location where the accident happened.

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SINGAPORE – A piling and civil engineering company was fined S$290,000 after it was convicted for multiple safety lapses which resulted in the death of its employee two years ago.

The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said on Friday (May 4) that ZAP Piling had failed to secure the necessary permits, conduct risk assessments, establish a proper lifting plan, or put in place safe work procedures before carrying out lifting works prior to the accident.

The incident saw the worker fatally pinned by heavy casings during a lifting operation at a machinery storage yard in 2016.

"If (the company) had taken these measures before commencing the lifting works, the obvious risks would have been addressed," said Mr Sebastian Tan, MOM's Director of Occupational Safety and Health Inspectorate.

The ministry said that a permit-to-work is required for lifting operations in accordance to the Code of Practice on "Safe Lifting Operations in the Workplaces". This would have ensured "appropriate safety measures" were in place before work commences.

MOM said the company was also required to establish and implement a lifting plan, which it had failed to do. The plan would have required the company to mark out the zone of operation for the lift and consider "the physical factors such as obstructions existing at the time of the lift and establish an effective means of communication amongst the various workers involved".

Mr Tan also said the "congested and disorganised" premise was a hazard to the company's workers.

Above: Aerial view of premises – poor housekeeping arrangements in place. Photo: MOM

In its report, MOM stated the company had failed to ensure proper housekeeping arrangements at the site, such as stabilising stacked bore pile casings with support structures as the "risk of a load coming into contact with the casings in the tight and congested premises was high".

"The company's numerous and glaring oversights in ensuring their workers' safety resulted in a loss of life," said Mr Tan.

According to the investigations by the ministry, ZAP Piling's director Tay Tong Tham had instructed site supervisor Tay Tong Chuan to perform a functional test of a bore piling machine at the storage yard at 6 Kranji Link for the first time on June 7, 2016.

It is unclear if the director and the supervisor are related to each other.

Despite not receiving "any particular instructions on safety matters", the supervisor carried out a third functional test on the bore piling machine two days later on June 9 with the deceased, Arumugam Elango, and his colleagues.

Above: A boring basket (L) and bore pile casings. Photo: MOM

On the day, Tay Tong Chuan instructed crawler crane operator Cai Guanglin to shift a boring bucket that was in front of the piling machine, to a new location beside a stack of bore pile casings.

After rigging the bucket to the crane, Arumugam moved to a tight space between the bore piling machine and the casings. According to the report, the space was about 1.4 metres apart.

During the process of shifting the bucket, the crane knocked against the casings and caused some of them to topple and pin Arumugam against the track of the piling machine. Each of the fallen casing weighed about 1.76 tonnes, said MOM.

Arumugam, whose nationality was not reported by the ministry, was pronounced dead at the scene due to multiple injuries.

 

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