'Mighty snap' as crane boom collapses

'Mighty snap' as crane boom collapses

SINGAPORE - With a loud snap that sounded "like thunder", a tower crane at the construction site of the National Art Gallery crumpled on Monday morning.

When the dust settled at the former City Hall, two foreign workers were dead and four others injured.

The accident took place in Supreme Court Lane while the crane was lifting an excavator.

The boom of the crane collapsed at about 10.50am, sending metal parts and concrete counterweights flying. One man was killed by the counterweights, and the other by the crane's hook assembly.

Workers said one of the deceased, 28-year-old Bangladeshi Ronju Ahmmed, had been with the company for six years. The other was a Thai national who was not named. One of them was trapped in scaffolding five storeys up, near the collapsed crane. His body was brought down by the Singapore Civil Defence Force using rescue ropes.

Two workers with head injuries were rushed to Singapore General Hospital. One of them, in his 40s, was admitted to the Intensive Care Unit, while Bangladeshi Imran Hasan Ahsan Ullah, 24, needed surgery. Another worker was under observation at Raffles Hospital, and a fourth was discharged.

Mr Norhisham Yussof, a 30-year-old driver who was at the Padang at the time, said he heard a loud crack "like thunder". He saw an excavator falling, followed by the crane that was lifting it. "When I turned my head, it was already on the way down," he said.

At the rooftop bar at the Fullerton Hotel, hotel guest Rachael Penman, 40, said she heard "a mighty snap", while another eyewitness saw workers scattering amid a cloud of dust.

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Mr Imran - who had stitches on his head and a fracture in his neck - could not give details about the accident.

He told The Straits Times that he was surprised to find himself in hospital, and could not recall how he ended up there.

Said the safety coordinator: "I reached the worksite at 7.20am. The last thing I remember is being on the ground floor."

This was the second accident for main contractor Takenaka-Singapore Piling Joint Venture at the same site. In July, a crane jib snapped and landed on the road below. No one was injured.

On Monday, the Manpower Ministry stopped all work at the site and began investigations.

Out of 26 fatalities in the construction sector last year, five came as a result of crane accidents. Including yesterday's incident, there have been at least 15 deaths this year.

davidee@sph.com.sg
joycel@sph.com.sg


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