Hong Kong crane collapse: contractor suspended from bidding on government work, may be taken off list of recognised tenderers
- Aggressive Construction Company not allowed to bid for public works projects until end of next year
- Police return to site to gather evidence at site where three died and six were injured
The main contractor at a Hong Kong construction site where a tower crane collapsed and killed three workers has been temporarily banned from bidding for public works and housing projects.
The Development Bureau on Thursday said that given the seriousness of the incident, Aggressive Construction Company would not be allowed to bid for public works projects until the end of next year and could be removed from the list of recognised tenderers if an investigation found further action was needed.
Bureau officers had inspected the four other public works projects the company was managing and no irregularities were found, it added.
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Crane accident kills 3 workers at Hong Kong construction site
The crane collapsed just before 11am on Wednesday, crashing onto six containers used as temporary offices at a Housing Society construction site in Sau Mau Ping. Five of the nine workers involved were trapped in some of the containers and had to be freed by firefighters.
The Housing Authority also suspended the company from bidding on its tenders and barred it from using cranes at five of the six projects the contractor was handling for the government agency.
Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu said police would carry out a comprehensive investigation into the cause of the crane failure, which also injured six workers, and submit details to the Coroner’s Court to assess the need for a hearing.
‘Obvious faults’ at base of collapsed tower crane that killed 3 in Hong Kong
More than 20 detectives from the police force’s Kowloon East regional crime unit returned to the site in the morning to gather evidence alongside officers from the Labour Department and the Government Laboratory.
Acting senior superintendent Wong Yick-lung, from the force’s Kowloon East regional crime unit, said officers would examine the design, materials used, construction, operation and inspection of the crane to see whether any negligence was involved. He also said the force had taken statements from about 10 people as of 5pm on Thursday, and no arrests had been made.
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Secretary for Labour and Welfare Chris Sun Yuk-han, on a visit to the site on Wednesday, said he suspected the base of the 65-tonne (143,300lbs) crane had “obvious faults”.
Engineers also pointed to the possibility of poor workmanship in the welding of steel beams at the base of the unloaded crane.
Joseph Chi Wuh-jian, chairman of the Hong Kong Institution of Engineers’ safety specialist committee, said that while authorities would need time to ascertain the reasons behind the accident, inadequate welding could be partly to blame.
“There were problems with the base [of the crane] … But we need to conduct a detailed study and analysis before we can tell whether it was a major cause or the sole cause,” he said.
The Factories and Industrial Undertakings Regulations state the erection or alteration of cranes must be supervised by “competent persons” and owners must ensure the equipment is inspected for safety every week by qualified personnel.
Ryan Ng Wai-leung, the rights and complaints officer for the Hong Kong Construction Industry Employees General Union, said that, as the regulation did not define “competent persons” or lay down other details, the inspection work done by different contractors could vary.
“Some companies have detailed guidelines specifying which parts of the crane should be examined, but other companies do not. So the law is imperfect and has to be improved,” Ng said.
Legislator Lam Chun-sing of the Federation of Hong Kong and Kowloon Labour Unions appealed to the government to review the regulations.
He added that those authorised as competent should be experienced structural engineers “or technicians who have completed certain courses or hours of professional training”.
The Housing Society and Aggressive Construction Company said they would cooperate with the investigation. The society earlier extended its condolences to the families of the dead and injured, adding it would provide a lump sum of HK$300,000 (US$38,000) to the families of those killed and HK$100,000 to the injured.
The three killed were a 22-year-old engineering assistant, a 25-year-old engineer and a 41-year-old electrician. Their families went to the site on Thursday to carry out rituals for the deceased.
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An uncle of the engineering assistant said the victim took up the job just four months ago after graduating, becoming the sole breadwinner for his single mother, who was a new immigrant.
“He was thinking he had found a good job and could support his mother and that she could have some hope,” the uncle said. “Now that he has died, his mother has no hope, and I don’t know how she will continue on.”
He added that he hoped the chief executive would establish a task force to follow up on the incident.
“This young person died so unjustly,” the uncle said.
Fay Siu Sin-man, chief executive of labour group the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, said among the three dead, the family of the electrician, surnamed Hui, was in the most difficult situation. He is survived by his wife, who is in ill health, and two children, aged only four and seven.
Siu said the families of the engineering assistant and the engineer met the main contractor on Thursday and one family had accepted condolence money from the company, but she could not disclose the details.
Government figures showed there were 3,109 industrial accidents and 23 fatalities reported in the construction sector last year. There were 2,532 accidents and 18 deaths in 2020.
Additional reporting by Clifford Lo and Lilian Cheng
