Crane operator killed as 500kg hook falls onto cabin at Hong Kong-Macau bridge site
A 500kg hook broke free from a crane arm and fell into the driving cabin, killing its elderly operator at a Tuen Mun site for the bridge linking Hong Kong with Zhuhai and Macau.
A 500kg hook broke free from a crane arm and fell into the driving cabin, killing its elderly operator at a Tuen Mun site for the bridge linking Hong Kong with Zhuhai and Macau.
Wu Ka-fai, 62, was operating the crane inside the cabin at the Lung Mun Road site at the time the incident happened at about 8.15am on Tuesday.
“A cable that linked to the hook snapped. The hook tumbled down along with the cable and struck the driving cabin and the worker,” a police spokeswoman said.
She said Wu was declared dead at the scene by paramedics.
The spokeswoman said initial investigations found nothing suspicious and an autopsy would be carried out to establish the cause of death.
The Labour Department said its officers had been sent to the site to initiate a probe into the cause of the accident.
It was at least the fourth fatal industrial accident since work on the massive bridge across the Pearl River estuary started several years ago, according to the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims.
The association called on the Development Bureau and the Labour Department to launch a thorough investigation to find out whether the case was linked to loose safety standards on the site.
The previous case happened last October, when a 43-year-old worker was killed and four others injured as a platform they were working on off Chek Lap Kok airport plunged 15 metres to the ground.
An association executive member, Ada Leung Kam-oi, said there had been at least six fatal industrial accidents in the first three months of this year, and the latest was “serious”.
“The Labour Department should enforce stringent safety rules and enhance inspections of construction sites across the city,” she said.
