Contractors admit fatal errors on ICC accident
Three contractors pleaded guilty yesterday to a total of 49 summonses over the collapse of a work platform at the International Commerce Centre last year that killed six workers.
Sanfield Building Contractors, Wang Wai Construction Works and Well Achieve Construction Company admitted 24, 13 and 12 counts respectively. Acting principal magistrate Abu Bakar bin Wahab adjourned sentencing until November 11.
Kwun Tong Court heard that on four days between September 5 and 13, the companies failed to identify hazardous conditions, provide necessary supervision for safety or provide and maintain a safe system for debris-clearing work inside the lift shaft where the men fell.
The bamboo platform, mounted on a wall on the 27th floor, collapsed on September 13. The men fell 17 floors to the 10th floor.
'It was thought, wrongly, that [the platform] was made of metal,' Clive Grossman SC, for principal contractor Sanfield, said. Only three people were supposed to be working on the platform and there were not enough harnesses for six.
The debris-clearing work was not part of the construction project, Grossman said. A complaint about dust had been made by people who had already moved into the ICC, and the contractors had to clear the debris urgently.
An expert said the platform may have already been unsafe for use before the work started, the court heard.
Grossman stressed that Sanfield had an excellent safety record, with accident rates that were a fifth of the average rate in Hong Kong.
The company had already compensated each of the six affected families with HK$1.2 million, and an education fund had been set up to support 14 children until they finished university.
Lawyers for the other two contractors said their clients had relied on Sanfield's good safety record, and had followed its instructions to send workers to the platform.
