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SCMP Reporter

Contractors had begun unauthorised procedures to remove props supporting a Tseung Kwan O footbridge last January - the day it collapsed and killed a driver, an inquest heard yesterday.

  A section of the 200-tonne footbridge in Po Ning Road, outside Hau Tak Estate, collapsed on January 26, crushing a lorry. The driver was killed and four other site workers injured.

  The body of Cheung Kwok-fai, 46, was recovered five hours later after heavy cranes lifted the footbridge.

  Medical reports said Cheung had died immediately.

  Chow Po-ki, a site engineer employed by Maunsell Consultants to monitor the project, said main contractor Wan Hin started to remove four positioning jacks on temporary scaffolding that day without the task being approved by an independent engineer.

  The Coroner's Court heard that after the positioning jacks had been unscrewed, two precast concrete beams could then be lowered to the bridge's deck.

  Mr Chow said no certificate endorsed by another engineer had been received to approve the works.

  'Wan Hin didn't give us a detailed proposal about lowering the beams. It had mentioned the procedure during a meeting but didn't hand over detailed plans,' he said.

  Leung Sai-cheong, 41, an on-site construction worker, said he was taking out the positioning jacks when the bridge collapsed.

  'There was no warning. It shook a little bit and fell down all of a sudden. It was like an earthquake,' he said.

  Mr Leung, who had worked on the bridge's scaffolding since November 1995, said he did not consider the procedure to be unsafe. He suffered internal bleeding in the accident and has been unable to work since.

  Wan Hin and its manager each face two summonses of failing to ensure safety at a workplace and failing to ensure workers' wellbeing. Their trial has been fixed for May 5.

  Yesterday Cheung's wife, Tong Ling-yuk, 39, an Indonesian-Chinese, listened to the hearing aided by an interpreter. The inquest continues before Coroner Richard Day today.



Fatal bridge collapse as props unscrewed