No Lunar New Year joy for Hong Kong widow after construction worker husband dies, another statistic in worksite tragedies
- Recent spate of worksite mishaps raises concerns over safety levels in construction sector
- Twenty-five fatal accidents in construction sector last year buck overall decline in workplace accidents
Before the Covid-19 pandemic struck Hong Kong in 2020, Yan* looked forward to the Lunar New Year as a time of celebration, when she returned to her hometown across the border with her husband and two daughters.
But she has made no plans for the festival this year, as her 39-year-old husband, a construction worker, died in an accident at work last year.
“We will probably just stay at home; there’s not much of a festive mood,” Yan, 36, told the Post.
Her husband, surnamed Hung, was installing windows at a public housing development at Fanling, in the New Territories, when he slipped and fell, according to media reports. He died at the scene.
His death was one of 25 fatal industrial accidents recorded in Hong Kong last year, with most on construction sites.
The sector has continued to record the highest number of fatalities and worksite accidents, even as the total number of industrial incidents declined over the last decade.
While the number of such mishaps across all industries came down from a high of 13,658 in 2011 to 7,202 in 2020, the construction sector alone accounted for 2,532 accidents in 2020 and 2,947 in 2019.