SINGAPORE — Logistics company Hoy San Stevedoring was fined S$240,000 under the Workplace Safety and Health Act after a worker was hit by a forklift in 2020.

The worker had to have his leg amputated, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) said in a news release on Friday (Oct 6).

On July 21, 2020, the injured worker was walking into the operational area of a wharf when his co-worker was using a forklift to unload and pick up boxes of lifting gears outside a warehouse.

“From the operational area, the injured worker observed the first load of steel coils being lifted by a vessel crane towards the wharf,” MOM said. “He took out his mobile phone and intended to take a photograph of the lifting operation when he was hit by the forklift.”

The injured worker was taken to a hospital, where he was diagnosed with an open fracture on his foot. He underwent a below-the-knee surgery to have his right lower limb amputated.

In its investigations, MOM found that Hoy San Stevedoring failed to properly conduct a risk assessment to identify the risks associated with the work that employees were exposed to. The firm also did not implement the necessary measures to control the identified risks.

At the same time, the company did not put in place a traffic management plan to address the risk of employees being struck with forklifts used for the work activities.

Last month, MOM said that falls from height, collapse or failure of structures and equipment and vehicular incidents were the top three causes of workplace fatalities in the first half of 2023.

Vehicular incidents were also one of the most common causes in 2022.

In a separate case, a construction worker was sentenced to 16 weeks’ jail over the death of another worker following a vehicular accident last year.

Muthukaruppan Suresh was working as a wheel loader operator at the time. The deceased, Arumugam Saravanan, was a lifting supervisor.

On April 22, 2022, Saravanan walked across a vehicular access driveway towards a sheltered rest area for his morning break when Suresh struck him with the front left bucket of the wheel loader.

“Saravanan fell and was run over by the wheel loader’s front and rear left wheels,” MOM said. He was taken to hospital, where he later died of his injuries.

Investigations showed that Suresh was negligent in his duties as a wheel loader operator, the ministry added.

“If Suresh had not raised the bucket to a point where his line of vision was obstructed, he would not have collided into the deceased,” it said.

As with the case involving Hoy San Stevedoring, the incident “could have been avoided if the employers had put in place proper traffic management plans and ensured that employees adhered to these while following safe work procedures”, MOM said.

Another case involved a company that was fined S$50,000 after it was found to have continued works while under a Stop Work Order.

MOM issued the order to PT Construction on Feb 15, 2022 after it found several safety lapses at its worksite.

The lapses included workers working on the roof without any personal protection equipment, multiple open sides and floor openings from and through which people can fall, as well as the absence of permits-to-work for work-at-height activities.

In a follow-up inspection about two months later, the firm was found to be carrying out bricklaying works at height while the Stop Work Order was still in force. CNA

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