A construction firm director died last week after he fell through an opening in the floor of a semi-detached house that was undergoing addition and alteration works.
The 53-year-old Singapore permanent resident was overseeing construction work at the two-storey house located at 38 University Walk, which is in a private estate near Dunearn Road, when he fell through the opening and landed on a staircase 4.7m below.
The fatal accident on Feb 10 was the fourth work-related death that took place over the first 10 days of the month, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) told The Straits Times in a statement yesterday.
MOM is investigating all four incidents.
The Singapore Civil Defence Force was alerted to the Feb 10 incident at 11.40am and the company director was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where ST understands he was pronounced dead.
He is believed to be Mr Koh Kok Heng, one of two people listed as directors at JMS Construction.
The firm is the occupier of the University Walk site and has been ordered to stop all works.
When ST contacted the firm yesterday, a woman who picked up the phone declined to comment.
A notice outside the semi-detached house said the property also had a basement and an attic. Construction work at the site was expected to be completed in June.
MOM said it will continue to intensify its enforcement efforts in the light of the string of workplace deaths, with a greater focus on the risk of working at heights.
This is the second time in about six months that a worker has died after falling through an opening in the floor on a construction site.
On Wednesday, the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Council reminded those in the industry, via a bulletin, to conduct comprehensive risk assessment before allowing work to proceed. Floor openings must be identified, securely covered or have guard rails installed. Warning signs must also be put up to alert workers.
The four deaths this month come after a spate of five fatalities over two weeks late last year. Between Nov 23 and Dec 2, five workers died in separate incidents, of which two were in construction. A sixth fatality was reported on Dec 15 at a Land Transport Authority construction site beside the Changi MRT depot.
The deaths sparked concern, with National Trades Union Congress assistant secretary-general Melvin Yong wondering at the time if fatigue from Covid-19 measures had led to lapses, and if firms were compromising on safety in a rush to finish work delayed by the pandemic.
The WSH Council and the Singapore Contractors Association called for an industry-wide safety time-out in response to the deaths, while the MOM conducted 400 inspections between Dec 10 and Monday targeting high-risk sectors such as construction, manufacturing and marine. The inspections uncovered about 450 contraventions in just over a month and four stop-work orders were issued.
While MOM has yet to release the full tally of workplace fatalities reported last year, preliminary figures indicate there were at least 29 such deaths. In 2019, there were 39 workplace deaths.
