S’porean Crushed by Container at Pioneer Work Site

There’s always a feeling of sadness and frustration when a COVID-19 case succumbs to the disease because we feel like we could have done more to prevent it.

There’s a similar feeling whenever a fatal workplace accident takes place.

While impossible to prevent all accidents from happening, when a fatal accident occurs at a work site, it typically means that there was some negligence or safety lapse involved.

It’s not always easy to pinpoint what went wrong in these accidents, but that may not be the case in this tragic case.

S’porean Crushed by Container at Pioneer Work Site

At around 9am yesterday (1 Oct), the police and Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) were alerted to an accident at a worksite at 15 Pioneer Crescent.

When they arrived, they found that a 49-year-old Singaporean worker had been crushed to death by a 20-foot container.

The man was motionless at the site and was later pronounced dead by an SCDF paramedic.

It turns out that the fatal workplace incident took place while the container was being unloaded by a side loader, a specialised vehicle used to load and unload shipping containers from its side.

It’s unclear how the accident occurred, but a 42-year-old man was later arrested for causing death by a rash act.

The deceased worker’s employer, Allied Container (Engineers and Manufacturers), has been ordered to stop all loading and unloading of containers, as well as suspend the use of side loaders.

Allied Container is the occupier of the worksite, which is a container depot.

30 Workplace Accidents in 2021 So Far

There have been 30 workplace fatalities in 2021 so far, equalling last year’s total tally of fatal workplace accidents.

Last year’s tally was the lowest on record, but the spate of workplace deaths in recent months has concerned the authorities.

Last month, a 37-year-old man died after he was trapped under a concrete pump truck at a construction site in Bedok.

And in Aug, a 74-year-old worker died after falling off an elevating platform in Century Square’s loading bay.

Three workplace fatalities also occurred in just five days in June, compelling the WSH council and six trade associations to call for a safety time-out.

A safety time-out is a planned event where companies take time off from their daily work routine to take go through and review the existing workplace safety and health (WSH) systems and work processes.

These companies would then implement the necessary measures to keep safety practices robust and uphold good WSH standards.

Measures include identifying possible systemic lapses in the workplace safety and health processes and addressing them.

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