PIE site accident: Construction firm fined recently over separate fatal accident
Or Kim Peow Contractors (OKP), the construction firm working on the viaduct structure which collapsed on Friday morning, had previously been fined over a fatal accident.
Just on Tuesday (11 July), the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) fined OKP $250,000 for safety lapses that caused the death of one worker and injured three others. A platform that the workers were standing on under the Yio Chu Kang flyover had given way. They fell from a height of 6.4 metres in the accident on 22 September 2015.
OKP’s safety coordinator and site supervisor Victor Tan Kok Peng was also slapped with a $12,000 fine for performing a negligent act under the Workplace Health and Safety, said MOM.
Chan Yew Kwong, MOM’s director of occupational safety and health inspectorate, had said of the accident, “This is a clear case of a company that does not take workplace safety seriously.”
In 2015, OKP was awarded a contract by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) to construct a viaduct from the Tampines Expressway to Upper Changi Road East and the PIE.
On Friday morning, a section of the viaduct structure between two piers collapsed at the worksite at Upper Changi Road East, near the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE), said the LTA. One worker was pronounced dead at the scene while 10 others were sent to hospital.
LTA said that according to preliminary investigations, “the corbels supporting the pre-cast beams had given way”.
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