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Martin Wong

Man, 55, crushed in pier accident

A 55-year-old driver was crushed to death yesterday when a shipping container plunged 12 metres from a crane onto his truck.

The truck had been waiting under the crane on a Kwai Chung  pier for the container to be loaded.

Union leaders described the accident as rare but said some truck drivers were concerned about their safety on cargo piers.

The accident occurred shortly before 10.30am, when the driver, Cheung Shek, parked his truck on Container Port Road at the ATL Logistics Centre in preparation to be loaded with a container.

'A container was lifted up by a crane, but the devices placed onto the four corners of the container which were used to tighten the container loosened,' a police spokesman said.

'The cargo fell off from about a 12-metre height and crashed onto the top of the lorry.'

Firefighters were called to rescue the driver, who was trapped in the driver's seat.

The crane  lifted the container off the  truck and rescuers used heavy equipment to cut the driver out of the wreckage.

Rescuers  reached Cheung within 15 minutes. He was in critical condition when admitted to Princess Margaret Hospital with serious head injuries  and died at about 11am.

Police  cordoned off the area after the accident to carry out investigations.  The Labour Department  also sent officers to investigate.

Officers from the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department were also sent to help  establish the cause of the accident.

Chiu Chi-keung,  chairman of the Container Transportation Employees' General Union,  expressed concerns about  onsite safety.

'We suspect the accident may have been caused by a mechanical problem of the machine or long working hours [for the cargo operator],' he said. 'When a machine operator has worked too long, he might be exhausted, leading to an accident. Or it is simply a maintenance problem. Regular checks are conducted on cranes, but the maintenance work is outsourced, and the quality of the maintenance work might not be good.'

Mr Chiu said the union was still trying to gain a more complete understanding of the accident and had to wait for the police and other government departments to finish their investigations.

'Our members are in fear now because they do not know when a container will fall again,' he said.

'A similar incident happened in the 1990s and the cause is still unknown.

'The government must find out the reason and tell us why such an incident happened.'

The union urged members not to drive too close when the crane was fixing onto a container before it was ready to be loaded onto their trucks.

He said the union would assist the victim's family.

'The most important thing for us to do now is to talk to Mr Cheung's family to see if there is anything we can do to help them.'

He said Cheung had an adult daughter.



Container falls on truck, killing driver