Ceiling over Hilton hotel driveway collapses, 4 taken to hospital

UPDATE: In a statement on Sunday, The Building and Construction Authority (BCA) said that they were notified of the ceiling collapse by the police at about 3.20pm and sent a team of BCA engineers to the site at about 4pm.

The BCA engineers, together with a Professional Engineer (PE) appointed by the hotel, inspected the damage and assessed that the building structure is intact and was not affected by the collapse of the false ceiling.

BCA said that it has also directed the hotel to get the PE to carry out a further detailed investigation of the incident, check all similar false ceilings at other parts of the driveway, and recommend rectification measures and follow up with the repair works to the affected areas.

According to a report in My Paper, a Hilton general manager said the probable cause of the accident was heavy rain. Peter Webster, Hilton's regional general manager, was quoted as saying that the ceiling, which is made of plasterboard with an aluminium frame, collapsed slowly.

He added that the damage "looks a lot worse than it is".

SINGAPORE - Part of the ceiling over the driveway of the Hilton Singapore hotel at Orchard Road collapsed on Sunday (Dec 12), with debris falling on top of a car parked outside the hotel.

According to citizen journalism website Stomp, the incident happened at about 2.50pm, and the affected vehicle was a black Volvo which bore a Malaysian-registered number plate.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force (SCDF) said that they received a call at about 2.55pm regarding people being injured at the hotel, and dispatched one ambulance and a fire engine to the scene.

According to SCDF, no one was trapped in the debris, but four people, a man and three woman, were taken conscious to Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

This is the latest in a string of recent accidents in Orchard Road in the past few weeks.

On Saturday (Dec 12), a power outage at the Orchard Central shopping mall forced some shops to close early.

Earlier this week on Thursday (Dec 10), one of the Christmas decorations near Orchard Gateway caught fire, while a Christmas tree located outside Topshop at Knightsbridge Mall also caught fire on Dec 2.

Meanwhile on Wednesday (Dec 9), a concrete slab fell from a pedestrian bridge outside Orchard Plaza, narrowly missing passers-by.

The spate of incidents in close succession have led some netizens to comment on Twitter that Orchard Road may be jinxed.