Safety calls grow after 2nd accident

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 24 June 2010.

Safety calls grow after 2nd accident
By Hoe Pei Shan
Straits Times, Jun 24, 2010

Six injured as 24ft lorry carrying 40 workers crashes into tree in Jurong Port Road

Reproduced photo caption: A fallen street sign after the accident early yesterday involving this lorry, which the company owner says had complied with regulations. --PHOTOS: BRYAN TOH, SHIN MIN

ST photo

CALLS for stricter rules governing the transportation of workers - as well as the bringing forward of their implementation - have grown louder, following another accident early yesterday morning.

A 24ft lorry carrying 40 workers crashed into a tree in Jurong Port Road, injuring six, with two treated for head injuries at the National University Hospital (NUH).

The accident was the second involving a lorry transporting workers in as many days.

President of the migrant worker advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2), Mr John Gee, called for a stop to using the lorry as a mode of transport for people.

He said: 'What we need is enclosed transportation - like buses - equipped with safety belts, which have been recognised to give a significant amount of added protection.

'It's very frustrating to see that people sit and argue about what is feasible while lives are being lost.'

On Tuesday, three Chinese nationals were killed when the lorry they were riding in skidded and overturned just off the Pan-Island Expressway, at the Thomson Road exit. Fourteen others were injured. Their overloaded vehicle was meant to carry only 13 people in the back.

In yesterday's Jurong Port accident, the lorry was one that met requirements, claimed company proprietor Simon Subra.

This included having a canopy, railings on both sides, and not overloading the 45-person vehicle.

Even so, two of the 40 Myanmar workers from Fining Engineers and Contractors - all in their 30s or early 40s - had to be sent to NUH for head injuries. They were treated as outpatients.

Another four escaped with scrapes and bruises and have since been discharged.

This latest incident has led to more calls for the authorities to act.

Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics' (Home) executive director Jolovan Wham lamented the lack of stronger regulations making it compulsory to have enclosed transportation.

Countering employers' claims about the cost involved in hiring buses, he added: 'The cost of hiring buses can be significantly reduced if employers sign collective agreements with transport companies offering bus services.'

Mr Wham also stressed the need for education to raise safety awareness, not only for drivers but also for workers.

Members of the public, too, have been outraged by the spate of accidents, with readers sending letters to The Straits Times forum page.

One writer, shipping executive Stewart Sanjay, questioned the Land Transport Authority's (LTA) decision to wait until 2012 before new safety measures are in place: 'By then, more people will be dead - travelling in non-enclosed transport is a very real and pertinent danger.

'Why do we need to wait? Stricter regulations should be implemented as soon as possible.'

However, there are those who feel that companies and the authorities can only do so much.

Comparing the two accidents, Mr Tan Jin Thong, president of the National Safety Council of Singapore, which works closely with the LTA and Ministry of Manpower, said: 'The lorry appears to have rightfully met all of LTA's requirements, and this clearly shows that the chances of being thrown off the lorry and incurring fatalities are decreased with such safety features.'

He added that 'the authorities can only do so much by establishing safety requirements'.

'Ultimately, it is up to the company, the workers and drivers themselves to ensure that safety comes first.'

'Lorries not meant to transport people.'

The following letters were published in the Straits Times forum on 24 June 2010.

'Lorries not meant to transport people'

MS TAN CHUI HUA: 'It is time for the Land Transport Authority to take passenger safety seriously. To insist on technicalities such as overcrowding of lorries or whether railings should be installed over a specified period does not address the core issue which is lorries are not meant to transport people. The attention paid to passenger safety in buses and cars versus the indifferent attitude towards the risks faced by passengers in lorries suggests double standards.'

'I cannot comprehend why LTA raised the speed limit'

MR CHIANG MENG LEE: 'My answer to Wednesday's report ('Must workers travel this way?') is yes. Provided, of course, the Land Transport Authority (LTA) effectively ensures that these lorries observe the 60kmh speed limit and they are confined to travelling on the slowest lane on the expressways. I cannot comprehend why the LTA raised the speed limit for vans, lorries and trucks and allowed them free rein on all expressway lanes bar the speediest. It is common these days to see such vehicles hogging most of the lanes, holding up the flow of expressway traffic.'


'Workers must be ferried in buses or vans'

MR ROGER OH: 'People should never be ferried on pick-up trucks and lorries that offer them little or no protection. Workers must be ferried in buses or vans. All too often, I have seen drivers of pick-up trucks tearing down the expressways with a load of passengers at speeds of 90kmh or more.'

Expedite timetable, train lorry drivers

The following article was published in TODAY on 24 June 2010.

Expedite timetable, train lorry drivers
by Jeremy Koh
TODAY
Jun 24, 2010

After recent accidents, Dr Lim Wee Kiak wants safety rules to kick in quickly

SINGAPORE - Nine male workers were injured when a lorry they were in skidded and crashed into a tree at the junction of Jurong Port Road and Jalan Buroh yesterday morning.

The Singapore Civil Defence Force said all nine suffered cuts and bruises and were sent to hospital. The boss of Siling Engineering Transportation Company, Mr Simon Subra, claims the lorry was not overcrowded at the time.

It is the second accident involving a vehicle carrying foreign workers in two days. On Tuesday, three workers were killed when their lorry overturned along the PIE.

Chairman for the Government Parliamentary Committee for Transport, Dr Lim Wee Kiak, said new rules to enhance the safety of workers transported on lorries should kick in sooner rather than later.

He was referring to measures introduced by the Land Transport Authority last September, some of which will only take effect in 2012.

Rules already in place include a lower maximum allowable height of a seated worker and enhanced penalties for non-compliance with safety regulations.

But lorry owners have till September 2012 to install higher protective side railings and canopies. A ruling to reduce the number of workers that can be transported will also only take effect that same year.

Speaking to MediaCorp, Dr Lim urged the authorities to expedite the timetable before more lives are lost. He also called for more training for lorry drivers who ferry passengers.

"Perhaps they should only be allowed on the left lane and travelling at a lower speed because there are passengers on board. In the long run, the ministry should consider if we should completely phase out allowing lorries to transport workers," said Dr Lim.

They're still flouting the rules

The following article was published in The New Paper on 23 June 2010.

They're still flouting the rules
By Kenneth Goh
The New Paper, 23 June 2010

Photo credit: TNP. Reproduced photo caption: HEIGHTENED DANGER: These foreign workers, spotted sitting on stools and plastic chairs or perched on equipment and wooden crates, could be seriously hurt if the lorries swerve.





Less than 12 hours after the horrific accident and less than 100m away, lorry drivers ferrying foreign workers were seen tempting fate and flouting the law.

Some workers sat on stools or plastic chairs n the lorries. Others were perched on piles of equipment and wooden crates.

This is against Land Transport Authority rules.

They were seated too high - their shoulders were well above the side-railings - putting them in peril should the vehicle swerve or be involved in an accident.

The New Paper team spent 30 minutes keeping a lookout during the evening rush hour at an overhead bridge near Catholic Junior College on the PIE.

And in that short time, we saw that seven of the 62 lorries which passed by ignored the LTA regulations.

Workers on one lorry slept on stacks of tools, blissfully unaware that they could die at any turn.

On another lorry, a few workers barely had enough sitting room. They were sandwiched between large metal pieces, pipes and a ladder.

One lorry carried 10 stacks of plastic chairs. Each stack had more than 30 chairs.

Under the towering stacks: three workers.

Two were on their backs fast asleep, while the other worker was squeezed in between the equipment on the cargo deck.

The lorries ferried an average of eight workers each. The workers were usually seated on the floor of the deck and leaning against the side railing.

Some had ample room to stretch their legs, but most sat with their legs crossed.

In one lorry, three workers were squeezed shoulder to shoulder.

They occupied only a small portion of the lorry's cargo deck, which was mostly filled with potted plants and bags of soil.

Three dead, 14 injured as lorry tips over

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 23 June 2010.

Three dead, 14 injured as lorry tips over
Workers flung off vehicle as it went out of control
By Ted Chen & Bryan Toh
The Straits Times
Jun 23, 2010

Reproduced photo caption: SCDF officers attending to the injured workers yesterday morning. Of the 14 sent to hospital for treatment, eight of them were discharged by late yesterday. The remaining six were kept to be treated for trauma and cuts, but all were in stable condition. -- ST PHOTOS: WONG KWAI CHOW

THREE Chinese nationals in their 40s were killed in the morning rush hour yesterday when the lorry they were riding in skidded and tipped over just off the Pan-Island Expressway (PIE).

Fourteen of their colleagues, all also male, were hurt in the accident, which took place along the slip road towards Thomson Road, just off the Changi-bound side of the PIE.

The vehicle was authorised to carry 13 passengers at the back and has space for up to three in the front, including the driver.

The police have yet to confirm the number of workers who were sitting with the driver.

Of the three dead, two died at the scene, and the third, about 31/2 hours later, at Tan Tock Seng Hospital.

Of the 14 sent there for treatment, eight, including the driver, were discharged by late yesterday. The remaining six were kept to be treated for trauma and cuts, but all were in stable condition.

All work for CREC Construction.

At about 7.35am, the Toyota Dyna lorry went out of control, mounted and lodged itself atop the metal divider separating the slip road to Thomson Road from the thoroughfare of the PIE.

The workers were flung off.

By the time the ambulances arrived about half an hour later, two of them were lying in a drain, one of them already dead.

Those who were injured sat by the kerb outside the old police academy in their blood-spattered clothes as they were given first aid by the Singapore Civil Defence Force.

The police closed off one lane on the slip road and the left-most lane of the PIE, causing a rush-hour traffic jam which did not ease until 10.45am, when the lorry was lifted and towed away.

Most of the damage was on the lorry's left side. The passenger door was smashed in, and the windshield lay on the road. The left-side railing on its cargo deck was missing.

Injured workers said that those with more serious injuries sat on the left side of the vehicle.

Mr Zhao Xue Bin, 41, who owns CREC, cautioned the injured workers at the hospital against talking to reporters; he too declined comment, despite repeated calls from The Straits Times.

The accident is the worst involving a lorry since May last year. In that crash, four people lost their lives when their vehicle slammed into a stationary trailer in Tuas.

Rules continue to be ignored, although the latest lot of safety measures which took effect in January have dampened the number of violations.

For example, in the last four months of last year, 201 cases of overloading were logged, but this fell to 80 in the first four months of this year.

Regulations state that the seats in the cabin next to the driver have to be filled before passengers can take up the cargo deck at the rear.

Under Land Transport Authority guidelines, lorries filled beyond capacity can earn their owners a fine or even a jail term, depending on how far beyond capacity the vehicle went.

No one has been arrested yet as investigations get under way. Witnesses are advised to contact the Traffic Police on 1800-547-1818.

New safety rules should kick in sooner, many say

The following article was published in the Straits Times on 23 June 2010.

New safety rules should kick in sooner, many say
By Ng Kai Ling & Daryl Chin
The Straits Times
Jun 23, 2010

Reproduced photo caption: Many lorries can be spotted on roads here ferrying workers under potentially unsafe conditions - like this lorry seen above, which had its tailgate half open. -- ST PHOTO: ALPHONSUS CHERN

WITH three workers killed and more than a dozen injured in yesterday's accident, questions have once again been raised about the adequacy of the measures taken to ensure their safety to and from their worksites.

Members of Parliament and representatives of worker-welfare groups, when reacting to news of the accident, asked, for example, why employers who transport their workers on the backs of lorries should be given until 2012 to comply with the stepped-up safety measures.

In fact, Madam Halimah Yacob - who chairs the Government Parliamentary Committee (GPC) for Manpower - wants to know why employers should even be allowed to use lorries, which are goods vehicles.

It is not as if the issue is new.

Accidents resulting in death and injury among workers have been extensively reported on in the last three years. Last year, one person died and 77 were hurt in accidents involving open lorries or pick-ups, making a total of 78 casualties, up from 69 in 2005.

In response, the authorities have run campaigns to educate employers on their responsibilities to their workers - as well as stiffened the penalties for flouting these regulations. Between last September and April this year, the Land Transport Authority issued 5,128 summonses to errant lorry drivers and owners.

The authorities also rolled out a slew of regulations last August - to be implemented over the next few years - to make it safer for workers to ride on these lorries.

For example, lorries registered from this year have to be fitted with higher side railings and canopies. Owners of older lorries have until 2012 to comply with this, to give them time to get their vehicles retrofitted.

In the meantime, stop-gap measures such as requiring workers to be seated no more than 1.1m higher than the cargo deck are in place.

Agreeing with Madam Halimah that there is no need to wait until 2012 for higher railings to become compulsory, migrant worker advocacy group Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) president John Gee said what stands out clearly for him is the danger of using an open-backed vehicle to transport workers - instead of using, say, a mini bus.

He said: 'We all knew that extra measures are being put in place to protect these workers, but the question is, would these changes, if implemented, be enough to save these workers?'

Dr Lim Wee Kiak, the chairman of the GPC for Transport, said it may be time to review the rules and, if need be, expedite their enforcement.

Madam Amanda Kwan, who learnt about the accident earlier yesterday from The Straits Times' website, immediately shot a letter to the paper to say that the accident raised the question of whether what has been done so far is enough.

Aside from what the authorities can enforce, some employers - individuals with the most direct influence on their workers' safety - have been resisting change, especially that which costs them money.

Mr Simon Lee, the executive director of the Singapore Contractors Association, said bigger companies may have already planned safer modes of transport for their workers, but for smaller firms, doing this may not make financial sense. This is because these firms spread their workers over a few projects, so to have a mini bus trailing a lorry carrying equipment would balloon costs.

Mr Neo Tiam Beng, who heads the Singapore School & Private Hire Bus Owners Association, when asked how much it would cost to hire a mini bus, said it depends on the kind of bus and distance, but prices start at $20 a trip.

Straits Times reader Madam Kwan wrote: 'One root cause of such accidents is the law that allows the transportation of workers like goods in open pick-up trucks and lorries.'

Madam Halimah agreed, saying workers should be treated better: 'I feel that the best way is to transport them in buses... I still see workers crouching in the corner of lorries when it rains, using plastic bags or newspapers to shield themselves. I think that is appalling.'

Improving safety of workers on lorries

THE following measures have been, or will be, implemented to enhance the safety of workers ferried to and from their worksites in lorries:

FROM SEPT 1, 2009

- The maximum height a worker can be seated was lowered to prevent falls off the back of the lorry. No part of a seated worker should be more than 1.1m above the carriage deck.

- Passenger seats in the lorry's cabin must be filled up before workers can occupy the rear carriage.

- Penalties for non-compliance with safety regulations were stiffened.

- Enforcement action was stepped up.

- Hotline to report non-compliance with safety regulations was set up. Members of the public may call 1800-225-5582 (1800-CALL LTA) to report breaches of the safety rules.

- Public-education programmes on employers' responsibilities and best practices in safety and worker welfare were run.


FROM JAN 1, 2010

- Lorries registered from Jan 1, 2010 and used for carrying workers on the carriage deck must be fitted with higher protective side railings. Such railings must stand at least 700mm (up from 550 mm) from the carriage deck, and at least 300mm (up from 150mm) from the top of the sideboards.

- Lorries which ferry passengers on the carriage deck must be fitted with canopies to protect the passengers from inclement weather.


FROM SEPT 1, 2012

- Every worker must have at least 8 sq ft of deck space to himself, up from 4 sq ft.

- All lorries must have higher railings and canopies.


EXISTING MEASURES TO BE COMPLIED WITH:

- Lorries must not exceed the speed limit or 60kmh, whichever is lower.

- A label stating the maximum passenger capacity must be displayed on the right side of the rear tailboard.

- Goods being transported must be properly secured so that they do not endanger the workers being carried or other road users.

3 dead in PIE accident

The following article was published online in the Straits Times on 22 June 2010.

3 dead in PIE accident
By Ted Chen and Bryan Toh
Straits Times
Jun 22, 2010

Reproduced photo caption: A motorvehicle accident involving a lorry left two casualties and 15 injured at Jalan Toa Payoh flyover to Changi Airport. -- ST PHOTO: WONG KWAI CHOW







PHOTO CREDIT: STRAITS TIMES

THREE workers died on Tuesday morning when a lorry carrying excess passengers skidded and overturned on the slip road from PIE towards Thomson Road.

Two died on the spot while another died later at Tan Tock Seng Hospital (TTSH), where 14 others were sent for treatment of injuries. All 17 are Chinese nationals and work for CREC Construction Pte Ltd.

The lorry skidded and slammed into the metal railings of the divider separating the slip road to Thomson Road and the PIE.

When ambulances arrived at 8.10am, two men were found in a drain along the divider, one of whom was already dead. Most of the vehicle damage was on its left side, with the passenger door smashed in, and windshield and left cargo side railing knocked off. Injured workers said those with more serious injuries had sat towards the left of the vehicle.

Traffic police closed off a lane on the slip road and the left-most lane of PIE, causing a rush-hour traffice jam till the lorry was lifted by two tow trucks at 10.45am.

Eight of the injured who suffered abrasions and simple arm fractures, including the driver, had been discharged from TTSH. Six others were warded, some for trauma and others for minor abrasions, but all are in stable condition.

Lorry was overcrowded

LORRY MEANT FOR 13 PASSENGERS

DESPITE new measures implemented by Land Transport Authority (LTA) in January to improve passenger safety in lorries, rules continue to be ignored.

On the 10-foot Toyota Dyna, 17 people were in the lorry meant to sit only 13 at the back.

Under LTA guidelines, if lorries exceed less than 25 per cent of its allocated capacity, a fine of $500 will be imposed, and if they exceed 25 per cent, the violator will be prosecuted in court, which could lead to a maximum jail term of six months.