The 24t deadweight, 60m tall, Wolffkran tower crane was being lowered by workers on a demolition project at the former Mitsukoshi department store, on the city’s busy Hennessy Road, at 9.45am on 10 July 2007. The lead contractor on the project is China Overseas Building Construction.
As workers removed a gantry, the crane buckled, and the operator’s cab and jib collapsed onto the roof of a nine-storey building near the store. Both the operation being conducted, and the position of the crane after its collapse, mirror a recent accident in Croydon, UK.
Two workers, Tam Sing and his cousin Tam Cheung-tai, were killed, and five were injured. The local fire brigade told newspapers that rescue attempts were delayed because of limited access to the top of the part-demolished building, and the need to secure the 24t crane. One worker, Chan Kin-Wah, was trapped in the wreckage for four hours.
Hong Kong’s department of labour has launched an investigation into the accident. Assistant commissioner of labour Tso Sing-hin discussed the accident on local public radio channel RTHK, and predicted the imvestigation would take two to three months to complete. In the aftermath of the accident, the department ordered its complete staff of inspection officers to perform a sweep of all 200 construction sites in the city where cranes were working. By 15 July, half of these had been inspected, and according to reports in the South China Morning Post, all were found to be satisfactory. When a similar sweep was conducted in June 2006, looking at 617 sites, 11 prosecutions ensued, and seven companies received warnings.
The labour and welfare bureau has reportedly warned the contractor, China Overseas Building Construction, that it would bear responsibility if it was found not to have maintained a safe working environment; however, given that no investigation has been conducted and that no evidence of a cause for the accident presented, this may be best taken as an indication that the authorities are taking the accident seriously.
Hong Kong laws on safety can see contractors fined up to HKD200,000 (EUR18,554), and facing up to a year in jail. However, Chan Kam-Hong of the city’s Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims has been reported as criticising the implementation of these laws, claiming that no employer has been jailed and average fines have been around HKD10,000, less than EUR1,000.
