Training is essential to maintaining safety in a dangerous environment
Hong Kong is in a vortex of seemingly endless construction, and it is common to see the industry's workers nimbly treading bamboo scaffolding at great heights. From the viewpoint of an office worker, their lot seems pretty risky. And it is. Building sites are notoriously dangerous, and the tragedies on July 10, when two workers were killed when a tower crane collapsed in Causeway Bay, and on Tuesday when another worker was killed after being hit by metal frames dropped by a construction crane in Kwun Tong, are evidence of this.
Like all industries, construction has its own set of health and safety regulations that aim to reduce, if not eliminate, these kinds of disasters.
Since 1997, the number of construction accidents per year has declined from 18,559 at the time of the handover to 3,400 last year, although last year saw a minor but significant increase in the number of accidents on small-scale building sites.
The basic occupational health and safety regulations are laid out by the labour department and follow the British system, and the Occupational Safety and Health Council (OSHC) has done much to support them through consultation and the dissemination of information, education and campaigns to promote greater awareness.
Individuals or companies must apply these regulations through personal vigilance or in-house health and safety personnel. Large firms such as Gammon Construction employ a whole department dedicated to health and safety.