Former Underwater World S’pore Fined S$105,000 for Exposed Safety Breaches After Death of Diver

As a child, Underwater World Singapore was a mystical place, filled with cool sea creatures and even cooler divers who fed them and took care of them.

But the now-defunct attraction had breached multiple safety measures which indirectly resulted in a veteran diver’s passing back in 2016.

Yesterday (23 March), Underwater World Singapore was fined S$105,000 over four lapses in safety measures that were uncovered after investigations over the diving incident were carried out.

In January this year, a representative from Underwater World Singapore had pleaded guilty to the safety breaches, admitting to one count of failing to ensure the safety and health of its employees, according to TODAYonline.

This included not providing adequate recovery procedures in an emergency during diving operations.

Veteran Diver’s Death

In 2016, the attraction run by Haw Par Corporation had announced that it was closing and it began to transfer the marine animals to new facilities.

As such, the divers were tasked with capturing said animals.

On 4 October 2016, diver Chan Kum Weng and his five colleagues were trying to catch a leopard whiptail ray after managing to guide three other rays into a holding area.

The stingray then suddenly struck him with the venomous bard on its tail, piercing his chest.

The 62-year-old diver was then rushed to the Singapore General Hospital (SGH) where he had passed away.

Mr Chan had 25 years of experience in the company, but his expertise and skill would not “invariably insulate” him from animal inflicted harm, said then-State Coroner Marvin Bay.

Sorely Inadequate Risk Assessment and Safe Work Procedures

In January, the court had heard that Underwater World Singapore did not establish any risk assessment and safe work procedures for the capturing of marine animals.

In fact, they had mainly relied on the late diver to capture the marine animals.

Ministry of Manpower (MOM) prosecutor Mohd Rizal noted that Underwater World Singapore also depended on Mr Chan to “plan and execute the capturing works, which included briefing on the capturing methods he had devised, the allocation of manpower required, equipment needed and the foreseeable risks and precautions to take during capturing.”

Safe work procedures for diving-related works were also insufficient, failing to address the supervision of diving works and maintenance of a proper lookout and communication with the divers.

Additional lapses included the following:

• No one was assigned to look out for divers who had to perform vacuuming works in tanks by themselves.
• There were no proper communication channels between divers and workers at the surface during feeding sessions.
• There was no stand-by diver appointed in the case of a diving emergency.
• There was no system for pre-diving equipment checks.

Even if a diver fell unconscious, his buddy would not be aware of it immediately since there was no line of sight or any form of lifeline provided.

Underwater World Singapore only had standard operating procedures for other work activities like scuba-diving works for tank-cleaning and the feeding of marine animals.

In sentencing the company, District Judge Adam Nakhoda found that the breaches were fundamental and echoed then-State Coroner Bay’s sentiment that expertise could not replace proper safety measures.

However, he did take into account that the attraction had implemented other safety procedures.

Underwater World Singapore could have been fined up to S$500,000 under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.

Feature Image: Jakgapong Pengjank / Shutterstock.com