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Cliff Buddle

Bamboo scaffolding, with workers perched precariously at dizzying heights, is one of Hong Kong’s most distinctive sights.
The city is one of the few remaining places to depend on the light and relatively cheap material, used for generations.
But last week, tragedy struck. Two workers died and another three were injured when bamboo scaffolding plunged from the 19th floor of a luxury housing development.
This is the latest in a catalogue of construction site fatalities highlighting Hong Kong’s poor safety record. Effective measures that save lives are long overdue.
The scaffolding collapsed on Tuesday at a residential complex on the site of the old Kai Tak Airport. A 51-year-old woman working on scaffolding fell with it. Amazingly, she survived. Her wearing of a safety harness may have saved her life.
The scaffolding, however, collapsed on four cleaning workers below, killing two of them and injuring the others.
Hong Kong must keep promises for action on scaffolding
The response to such accidents is, by now, sadly familiar. The government has announced citywide inspections of large-scale bamboo scaffolding projects with a promise that “rigorous enforcement actions” will be taken.
An “in-depth” probe has been launched by the Labour Department alongside an inquiry by the main contractor, Hip Hing Construction. The police are also investigating.
It is important to establish how the tragedy occurred and to hold those responsible to account. But despite such promises every time an accident occurs, the death toll continues to mount. In September, three workers died and six were injured when a 65-tonne tower crane toppled over. This should have been a wake-up call.
Two months later, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han vowed to step up checks on construction sites after a fresh spate of industrial accidents, including the death of a 58-year-old worker hit on the head by an aluminium sheet.
In December, a worker at a landfill site was killed when trapped between a machine and a truck and a recycling firm employee lost his life after being crushed by part of an abandoned vehicle. The Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims said 25 workers died on construction sites last year.
Measures are, gradually, being adopted in a bid to make the industry safer. Penalties for serious breaches of safety regulations were increased to a maximum HK$10 million fine and two years’ imprisonment in April. This was long overdue.
It will now be for the courts to ensure the sentences imposed provide an effective deterrent. The new penalties, almost a year after being introduced, are yet to make a difference.
The government is reviewing its code of practice for bamboo scaffolding, last updated in 2017. Last week’s accident should inform and accelerate that process.
But the biggest challenge is changing a workplace culture that does not attach enough importance to safety. There is a need for greater awareness, despite the frequent tragedies. Corners are often cut to meet tight deadlines and unsafe habits persist.
One innovation that might help is the wider use of an app which tracks the safety record of frontline staff. The industry has reportedly agreed to adopt the new points-based system. The aim is to educate and to reward good behaviour rather than punish errant workers. It is a step in the right direction.
The first company to adopt the app was Hip Hing Construction, the main contractor at the site of the scaffolding collapse. It would be interesting to know whether staff there were using it at the time of the accident and, if so, what the technology revealed. Silent tributes to fallen construction workers have, sadly, become a regular occurrence. No doubt, it will take time for new measures to take effect.
But concerns about construction site deaths have existed, along with promises for improvement, since the death of 12 workers in the city’s worst industrial accident in 1993. There is no excuse for the continued loss of life.


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My Take

There is no excuse for continued loss of life at our building sites

A  construction worker at work in Fortress Hill on 21 February, 2024. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Safety belt ‘may have played pivotal role’ in saving life of Hong Kong worker, 51, who fell 19 floors in fatal scaffolding collapse

Bamboo scaffolding on a building at the city’s former airport runway collapsed, killing two workers and injuring three others. Photo: Sam Tsang

A worker sets up scaffolding at Sun Hing Building in Mong Kok. Photo: Dickson Lee

Why Hong Kong uses bamboo scaffolding in construction and the potential risks

The scene of the fatal incident in Kai Tak. Two women workers died and three others were injured on Tuesday after bamboo scaffolding around a 30-storey building collapsed. Photo: Sam Tsang

A construction worker at a site in Yau Ma Tei. Hong Kong is one of the few places left in the world that uses bamboo scaffolding. Photo: Jelly Tse

Bamboo scaffolding is used in maintenance works for an old building on Queen’s Road East, Wan Chai. Photo: Jelly Tse

‘Alteration may have caused’ deadly collapse of bamboo scaffolding at Hong Kong building site

The scene of a fatal scaffolding collapse. The main contractor has told the media that it will investigate the incident and offer help to the families of the victims. Photo: Sam Tsang

Officers from the Labour Department and Buildings Department inspect the Kai Tak site where the bamboo scaffolding collapsed. Photo: Sam Tsang

Police officers inspect the scene of the incident. Photo: Sam Tsang

Opinion

Latest tragedy involving bamboo scaffolding at Kai Tak project once again highlights city’s poor safety record and the need for change


Latest tragedy involving bamboo scaffolding at Kai Tak project once again highlights city’s poor safety record and the need for change.


Hong Kong society

Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


Column

There is no excuse for continued loss of life at our building sites

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Latest tragedy involving bamboo scaffolding at Kai Tak project once again highlights city’s poor safety record and the need for change

Latest tragedy involving bamboo scaffolding at Kai Tak project once again highlights city’s poor safety record and the need for change