The following article was published by Channel NewsAsia on 25 Feb 2008.
Overturned vehicles involve mostly trucks with heavy loads
25 February 2008
Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE : The MediaCorp News hotline received eight calls about accidents involving overturned vehicles, between December last year and the first week of February this year.
This compares to just two cases between October and November last year.
And these are just the numbers in our records.
Traffic Police say there are no exact figures of overturned vehicles in the past few months.
This is because only accidents with injuries or fatalities are recorded.
From the reports we received, most involved trucks carrying heavy loads.
Experts say longer vehicles like trailers and lorries carrying such loads are most at risk of overturning.
The reason is these vehicles have a higher centre of gravity.
So a normal car with just front or back two-wheel drive has a lower risk due to its lower centre of gravity. On August 23 last year, a tragic accident happened.
A foreign worker was killed when he and 13 others were flung out of a lorry, along the Pan Island Expressway after their vehicle overturned.
And when vehicles topple, it usually involves trucks and lorries carrying heavy loads.
Associate Professor Seah Kah Heng, Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National University of Singapore, said: "The centre of gravity might be quite high because they pack the cargo, and they try to pack as much as possible. Sometimes you pack the cargo to such an extent that you are not aware that the centre of gravity has gone up so much. And it is extremely dangerous to go around the corner fast."
"When you go round a sharp corner, there's such a thing called the centrifugal force. It is a force that tends to overturn the car out of the corner.
"If you are talking about trailers, some trailers have got this hinge between the prime mover and whatever cargo you're pulling. When it turns a corner, there will be some lateral or side force pulling it sideways. So that force can also cause a vehicle to overturn."
The centrifugal force is calculated based on the mass, the velocity of the vehicle and the radius of the curve.
The sharper the turn, the greater the force will act on a vehicle if a motorist is coming down at high speed.
Based on the formula, if a motorist is driving twice as fast, he will create four times a greater centrifugal force which means he is four times more likely to have his vehicle overturn.
And braking hard while driving straight can also tip a car over.
Professor Seah said: "Sometimes the brakes right and left, front and back are not balanced, and that gives the car a certain fall sideways as well. When you brake the tyre, if the tyres are not worn out evenly, it can pull the car to one side. And that can cause overturning. If something is on the road, like causing a bump, or the road is not even. That's another possibility causing the car to overturn."
The Automobile Association of Singapore says it is crucial for motorists to check their tyres regularly.
If they are not inflated properly or they are already worn out, a motorist may lose control of your vehicle. - CNA/de
(c) 2008 MediaCorp News Pte Ltd. All Rights Reserved
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday, September 10, 2007
More trucks caught with too many workers aboard
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 10 Sep 2007.
More trucks caught with too many workers aboard
Carolyn Quek
10 September 2007
Straits Times
With a construction boom on, contractors are rushing workers from site to site
FOUR years since the tightening of the rules to enhance the safety of workers being ferried in pickup trucks, the situation seems little better.
Last year, almost 300 trucks were caught with too many workers on board, up from 262 in 2005.
And with already 182 caught at the end of July, the numbers look set to hit a fresh high at year's end.
Between 2005 and this year thus far, eight workers have died in accidents while being ferried.
A Land Transport Authority (LTA) spokesman said: 'While the LTA and the Traffic Police will conduct strict enforcement against goods vehicle owners who violate safety rules, these owners also have a big role to play in proactively taking measures to enhance the safety of their workers carried at the back of vehicles.'
Industry players said that with the current construction boom, companies were taking on more projects than they had resources for - which has put more workers on the roads as contractors rush them from site to site to complete jobs on schedule.
The 145,000 foreign construction workers here are set to be joined by up to 50,000 more, who will stream in over the next few years for the building of mega projects like the integrated resorts.
Mr Raymond Lim, 50, director of Jackly Engineering, said that to be cost-effective, his lorries had to do double duty - transport both materials and workers.
Putting workers on buses made it safer and more comfortable for them, but buses cannot carry materials, said Mr Lim, who has 70 to 80 foreign workers on his payroll.
Another obstacle to using buses for workers: red tape.
Boon Yang Electrical's general manager, Mr Alex Sim, 35, said sensitive worksites required official clearance for vehicles, so hiring buses to transport workers added to the paperwork.
The issue has come under scrutiny since an accident last month in which a foreign worker was killed and his fellow passengers injured when their pickup truck was hit by a car. The truck spun around, flinging out the men who were on the cargo deck, and then turned turtle.
Tragically for the workers, the truck was not even their usual mode of transport, the vehicle's driver, Mr Chan Guang Quan, told The Straits Times yesterday.
They were usually ferried to their worksite in Bishan in buses, but had been deployed to another building project in Changi that day to lend help there.
Mr Chan, 42, said that while some workers were still on medical leave, most were already back at work.
He added: 'We are trying not to think about the accident so that we can move on with life.'
The accident triggered a debate online and letters to the media, decrying the practice of using pickup trucks to ferry workers around. It was tantamount to treating them no better than animals, these people said.
Back in 2002, following similar accidents, this was exactly the sentiment expressed in letters to The Straits Times Forum pages.
One recent letter writer, Mr Paul Staes, likened the ferrying of workers on cargo decks to transporting cattle.
The LTA put in place regulations in 2003 to set up minimum standards of safety and comfort for workers being transported, but there were still five deaths last year.
Four years on, the suggestions from safety experts, volunteer groups and others on improving safety remain similar. They have called for:
Seats along the sides of the vehicle, just like those in army trucks, which can be folded down when not in use;
Side railings that rise higher than the heads of seated passengers; and
Canopies for all lorries and pickups to shield workers from the elements.
All these features can be dismantled and companies have to pay only once to have them fitted.
Transport analyst K. Raguraman of the National University of Singapore said the system - maintenance of the trucks, alternatives and cost - cried out for a 'proper study'.
To be fair, said construction company bosses, some companies do provide good, safe transport.
United Engineering (UE), Lee Metal Group and Straits Construction, for instance, ferry their workers to and from worksites in buses.
But these companies' spokesmen said they could do this because they were relatively large, had big projects and enjoyed economies of scale, unlike smaller contractors.
For now, if making workers' transport safer remains intractable, calls have gone out to at least make it more comfortable.
Ms Braema Mathi, who chairs research and policy of migrant workers' rights group Transient Workers Count Too, has urged companies to build canopies on their pickups and lorries.
She said: 'I do not know how effective the workers can be if they are wet and ill.'
At least one company is going some way towards keeping its vehicles in good shape so they can run safely.
Stacon, which hires a dozen workers, puts $600 a month into maintaining its four lorries.
Its general manager, Mr Eddie Lim, 44, said: 'This money cannot be saved. If we do, there will be more problems in the future.'
Guidelines to ensure safety THE Road Traffic Act bars goods vehicles from being used as a means of private passenger transport, but it allows the owners of such vehicles to transport their workers to and from their place of work.
The Land Transport Authority laid down the following rules in April 2003 to ensure the safety of these workers:
They must be seated no more than 3.2m off the ground and in such a way that they will not fall off.
Each worker must have at least 0.372sqm of floor space, slightly bigger than a full page of this newspaper.
The goods vehicle must stay within a 60kmh speed limit when carrying workers.
It must not carry more workers than it is licensed to.
If goods are also being transported, they must be secured.
Open lorries with a maximum laden weight of 3,500kg or under must have side railings along the sideboards on the cargo deck.
When these rules came into force, the number of cases of overloading fell by almost half - from 508 in 2003 to 262 in 2005. But the number inched up to 293 last year; in the first seven months of this year alone, the figure has already hit 182.
In 2004, the year after the rules took effect, no deaths were reported in accidents involving workers being transported, although 87 of them were hurt. In 2005, two died and 67 were injured, while last year, five died and 76 were injured.
More trucks caught with too many workers aboard
Carolyn Quek
10 September 2007
Straits Times
With a construction boom on, contractors are rushing workers from site to site
FOUR years since the tightening of the rules to enhance the safety of workers being ferried in pickup trucks, the situation seems little better.
Last year, almost 300 trucks were caught with too many workers on board, up from 262 in 2005.
And with already 182 caught at the end of July, the numbers look set to hit a fresh high at year's end.
Between 2005 and this year thus far, eight workers have died in accidents while being ferried.
A Land Transport Authority (LTA) spokesman said: 'While the LTA and the Traffic Police will conduct strict enforcement against goods vehicle owners who violate safety rules, these owners also have a big role to play in proactively taking measures to enhance the safety of their workers carried at the back of vehicles.'
Industry players said that with the current construction boom, companies were taking on more projects than they had resources for - which has put more workers on the roads as contractors rush them from site to site to complete jobs on schedule.
The 145,000 foreign construction workers here are set to be joined by up to 50,000 more, who will stream in over the next few years for the building of mega projects like the integrated resorts.
Mr Raymond Lim, 50, director of Jackly Engineering, said that to be cost-effective, his lorries had to do double duty - transport both materials and workers.
Putting workers on buses made it safer and more comfortable for them, but buses cannot carry materials, said Mr Lim, who has 70 to 80 foreign workers on his payroll.
Another obstacle to using buses for workers: red tape.
Boon Yang Electrical's general manager, Mr Alex Sim, 35, said sensitive worksites required official clearance for vehicles, so hiring buses to transport workers added to the paperwork.
The issue has come under scrutiny since an accident last month in which a foreign worker was killed and his fellow passengers injured when their pickup truck was hit by a car. The truck spun around, flinging out the men who were on the cargo deck, and then turned turtle.
Tragically for the workers, the truck was not even their usual mode of transport, the vehicle's driver, Mr Chan Guang Quan, told The Straits Times yesterday.
They were usually ferried to their worksite in Bishan in buses, but had been deployed to another building project in Changi that day to lend help there.
Mr Chan, 42, said that while some workers were still on medical leave, most were already back at work.
He added: 'We are trying not to think about the accident so that we can move on with life.'
The accident triggered a debate online and letters to the media, decrying the practice of using pickup trucks to ferry workers around. It was tantamount to treating them no better than animals, these people said.
Back in 2002, following similar accidents, this was exactly the sentiment expressed in letters to The Straits Times Forum pages.
One recent letter writer, Mr Paul Staes, likened the ferrying of workers on cargo decks to transporting cattle.
The LTA put in place regulations in 2003 to set up minimum standards of safety and comfort for workers being transported, but there were still five deaths last year.
Four years on, the suggestions from safety experts, volunteer groups and others on improving safety remain similar. They have called for:
Seats along the sides of the vehicle, just like those in army trucks, which can be folded down when not in use;
Side railings that rise higher than the heads of seated passengers; and
Canopies for all lorries and pickups to shield workers from the elements.
All these features can be dismantled and companies have to pay only once to have them fitted.
Transport analyst K. Raguraman of the National University of Singapore said the system - maintenance of the trucks, alternatives and cost - cried out for a 'proper study'.
To be fair, said construction company bosses, some companies do provide good, safe transport.
United Engineering (UE), Lee Metal Group and Straits Construction, for instance, ferry their workers to and from worksites in buses.
But these companies' spokesmen said they could do this because they were relatively large, had big projects and enjoyed economies of scale, unlike smaller contractors.
For now, if making workers' transport safer remains intractable, calls have gone out to at least make it more comfortable.
Ms Braema Mathi, who chairs research and policy of migrant workers' rights group Transient Workers Count Too, has urged companies to build canopies on their pickups and lorries.
She said: 'I do not know how effective the workers can be if they are wet and ill.'
At least one company is going some way towards keeping its vehicles in good shape so they can run safely.
Stacon, which hires a dozen workers, puts $600 a month into maintaining its four lorries.
Its general manager, Mr Eddie Lim, 44, said: 'This money cannot be saved. If we do, there will be more problems in the future.'
Guidelines to ensure safety THE Road Traffic Act bars goods vehicles from being used as a means of private passenger transport, but it allows the owners of such vehicles to transport their workers to and from their place of work.
The Land Transport Authority laid down the following rules in April 2003 to ensure the safety of these workers:
They must be seated no more than 3.2m off the ground and in such a way that they will not fall off.
Each worker must have at least 0.372sqm of floor space, slightly bigger than a full page of this newspaper.
The goods vehicle must stay within a 60kmh speed limit when carrying workers.
It must not carry more workers than it is licensed to.
If goods are also being transported, they must be secured.
Open lorries with a maximum laden weight of 3,500kg or under must have side railings along the sideboards on the cargo deck.
When these rules came into force, the number of cases of overloading fell by almost half - from 508 in 2003 to 262 in 2005. But the number inched up to 293 last year; in the first seven months of this year alone, the figure has already hit 182.
In 2004, the year after the rules took effect, no deaths were reported in accidents involving workers being transported, although 87 of them were hurt. In 2005, two died and 67 were injured, while last year, five died and 76 were injured.
Friday, September 6, 2002
Foreign worker dies after fall from lorry
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 9 June 2002.
Foreign worker dies after fall from lorry.
Foreign worker dies after fall from lorry.
By Chong Chee Kin.
9 June 2002
Indian national was on his way back to living quarters with seven others when he fell; he died later from head injuries
A CONSTRUCTION worker died after falling from the back of a lorry on Friday night.
The 26-year-old Indian national was with seven of his countrymen, who were being transported back to their living quarters, when the accident happened at the T-junction between Boon Lay Drive and Boon Lay Road at about 8.30 pm.
A police spokesman said the worker is believed to have fallen from the back of the lorry as it was travelling along Boon Lay Drive.
The man suffered serious head injuries and was taken to the National University Hospital, where he died about an hour later.
A check by The Sunday Times showed that at least 20 foreign workers have been either killed or injured in similar accidents over the past two years.
In November last year, seven workers were injured after they were flung out of a lorry which hit two buses.
Three months earlier, another seven constructionworkers were flung out of the back of a lorry in a similar accident at the junction between Serangoon Road and Desker Road.
One of them, Mr Palaniyandi Servai Chinnallannu, 35, died two hours after the accident. The others suffered injuries but survived.
The rash of accidents sparked a debate in The Straits Times' Forum pages last month.
Letter writers hit out at the way foreign workers were 'transported like animals' in the lorries.
Mr John Barker wrote that he was amazed that the law allowed workers to travel in the back of trucks without either seats or seat belts.
'This makes a mockery of the law which requires seat belts to be worn when in the rear seats of cars,' he wrote.
Mr Mohamed Yazid Sallim also wrote to say that the practice was a serious and dangerous traffic violation.
Often, he noted, the workers were not only crammed in the back of an open vehicle but were also seated next to heavy machinery and sharp tools.
'It is an accident waiting to happen,' he wrote.
However, the Singapore Contractors Association said that the lorry was the most efficient means of ferryingworkers to and from their workplaces.
Citing statistics from the Land Transport Authority, it said the fatality rate involving the transportation of workersin open lorries was significantly lower than the overall fatality rate for all vehicles.
Meanwhile, the police are appealing for eyewitnesses to the latest accident.
Those with information should call 1800-547-1818.
DANGERS IN THE REAR
August 2001: Seven construction workers in the back of a lorry are flung out after the lorry hits another vehicle. One of them dies two hours later, while the rest are injured.
November 2001: Another seven workers are injured, also after being flung out of the lorry they were in when the vehicle hits two buses. June 2002: Another construction worker dies after falling from the back of a lorry.
(c) 2002 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
Thursday, May 30, 2002
Are lives of those in lorries worth less?
The following letter was published in the Straits Times on 30 May 2002.
Are lives of those in lorries worth less?
Are lives of those in lorries worth less?
By ALISON COUSLAND.
30 May 2002
I READ Singapore Contractors Association executive director Simon Lee's letter, 'No compromise on workers' safety' (ST, May 25), and would like to ask how this sits with the recent enforcement of the seat-belt law.
On Sunday, I saw a family travelling in the back of an open lorry. Are their lives less important than those of families travelling in a car, where seat belts must be worn? Is there a different value put on the lives of the people travelling in private cars and people travelling in open trucks? This is certainly how it appears to me, in the light of the seat-belt law.
I wonder if the Land Transport Authority could clarify the legal position with regard to people in cars and people in open lorries.
(c) 2002 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
Saturday, May 25, 2002
No compromise on workers' safety
No compromise on workers' safety [by] SIMON LEE, Executive Director. Singapore Contractors Association Ltd I REFER to the letters, 'Stop transporting workers like animals' by Mr John Barker (ST, May 16); 'Back of pick-up safer than back seat' by Mr Ooi Jian Yuan (ST, May 16) and 'Spare thought for foreign workers' by Mr Seah Yam Meng (ST, May 18). In the three letters, references were made to transporting workers in pick-up trucks, transportingworkers like animals and feeling sorry for the way theseworkers are being treated. The Singapore Contractors Association (Scal) reiterates that these workers have always been treated fairly. There is always a harmonious working environment, based on racial equality and meritocracy, within the construction industry. On the subject of transportation, workers and employers accept the practicality of such mode of transport. To date, this is the most efficient means to ferry workers to and from their workplaces. The workers' safety is never compromised to the extent of exposing them to greater danger than that faced by other road users. The accident statistics of the Land Transport Authority show that the fatality rate involving the transporting ofworkers in open lorries is significantly lower than the overall fatality rate for all vehicles. Further, we would like to add that Scal works closely with LTA on measures to regularly remind drivers/owners to comply with safety requirements, for example, the danger of overloading and speeding. New measures were also introduced to enhance the safety of workers transported in lorries, like limiting the number of workers allowed to be transported in openlorries and installing speed-limiters on lorries. (c) 2002 Singapore Press Holdings LimitedThe following letter was published in the Straits Times on 25 May 2002. 25 May 2002
Thursday, May 25, 2000
Safety labels for open-top vehicles soon?
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 25 May 2000.
Safety labels for open-top vehicles soon?
Safety labels for open-top vehicles soon?
25 May 2000
THE Land Transport Authority will look into putting labels on open-top pickups and lorries, indicating the maximum number of passengers they can carry.
It is also looking into other safety measures, including installing hand straps and handholds or using luminous tape on the backs of such vehicles.
Dr John Chen, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, said this in Parliament on Tuesday. He was responding to concerns from MPs for the safety of passengers in such goods vehicles.
Goods vehicles can be used to carry workers if they observe safety rules.
For example, pick-up trucks must have side railings and there is a limit to the number of passengers.
He said the LTA has publicised these rules and, together with the Traffic Police, has stepped up their checks against vehicles which flout the safety procedures.
About 480 goods vehicles were booked last year for breaking safety rules, compared to 206 vehicles in 1998.
Dr Chen added that he believes the number of accidents involving passengers from such open-back goods vehicles is very low.
(c) 2000 Singapore Press Holdings Limited.
Wednesday, November 24, 1999
5 hurt in collision
The following article was published in the Straits Times on 24 November 1999.
5 hurt in collision.
5 hurt in collision.
By YEOH EN-LAI.
24 November 1999
FIVE people were hurt, three of them seriously, in a chain collision of five heavy vehicles yesterday afternoon.
It happened in heavy rain along the Kranji Expressway. On the northbound expressway, traffic tailed back for at least 5 km.
From the flyover above, about 50 curious onlookers craned their necks to watch the Singapore Civil Defence Force rescuers in action.
The accident happened at around 3 pm, apparently after a lorry carrying computer products stopped in the expressway's extreme left lane under the Choa Chu Kang Road flyover.
A bus that ferries factory workers hit the lorry, and then three more lorries piled in.
One lorry belongs to Ascent Logistics. The second was a Malaysian-registered trailer, and the last was an empty diesel truck, a 10-wheeler registered to Ming Hup Trading Co.
Two people were pinned inside the cab of the 10-wheeler.
Rescuers used a device called the Jaws of Life to pry open the twisted metal. The device works like a huge pair of pliers in reverse.
The diesel had just been unloaded in Tuas.
The driver of the empty Ascent Logistics lorry was also rescued the same way.
All three were taken to the National University Hospital in serious condition, a Singapore Civil Defence Force spokesman said yesterday.
Two others were treated as outpatients.
Yesterday, soon after the mishap, the driver of the factory bus, Mr Sim Koon Lin, 26, and a co-driver of the trailer lorry told The Straits Times what happened.
Mr Sim said that to avoid the lorry that had stopped under the flyover, he tried to get into the next lane.
He said: "But there was traffic so I could not cut out. The next thing I heard was bang, bang, bang.
"It was raining heavily so it was hard to judge the distance."
Mr Azhari Mohamed, 21, who was next to Mr Abdul Rashid Main, 32, the driver of the trailer lorry, said he was stunned because it all happened so fast.
He said in Malay: "The driver had no time to react. We all could not brake in time."
Police are asking eyewitnesses to contact the Traffic Division on 222-2233.
(c) 1999 Singapore Press Holdings Limited
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