Man crushed to death by crane hook on Zhuhai bridge project was covering shift for siblings

A crane operator crushed by a falling hook on Tuesday was working for the day as a substitute on the site because the contractors - his sister and brother - could not find someone else to work during the Easter holiday.

Relatives of the operator, 62-year-old Wu Ka-fai, were deeply saddened by the accident, said Ada Leung Kam-oi, an executive member at the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, which has been helping the family.

"I talked to his sister and it turned out that he was only working as a substitute worker for a day," Leung said. "They could not find workers to operate the crane because it was Easter, so they asked [Wu] to do it."

Wu, who experienced personal tragedy 16 years ago when his son was kidnapped and killed, according to Chinese-language newspapers, was operating the crane at the Tuen Mun construction site for the bridge linking Hong Kong with Zhuhai and Macau on Tuesday morning. At about 8.15am, a 500kg hook broke free from the crane's arm and fell into his cabin, killing him.

Since construction of the bridge started in 2011, five people have been killed and more than 60 injured while working on it, Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said yesterday.

Leung said Wu was an experienced crane operator. She said Wu's sister told her that the crane in question had been inspected by engineers and found safe, though Leung said she did not ask when the last inspection took place.

Under Hong Kong law, contractors must hire a safety officer for construction sites that employ 100 workers or more. Leung said there should be more safety officers to ensure that the construction sites were safe.