Hong Kong bridge worker killed as machine plunges into sea

[BalanceOfPower]

Hong Kong bridge worker killed as machine plunges into sea

Project's safety record under spotlight again as machinery operator falls into the sea off Lantau

PUBLISHED : Sunday, 14 December, 2014, 5:01am
UPDATED : Sunday, 14 December, 2014, 5:01am

Alice Woodhouse [email protected]

Workers at the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge construction site. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

A construction worker on the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau bridge died after the excavator he was operating fell into the sea on Friday night.

The tragedy took the death toll from the Hong Kong section of the controversial project to four since work began in 2011.

Police officers and fire service divers found the unconscious man after the machinery slipped into the water at about 10pm on Friday. But freeing him took some 17 hours and the man, a Hongkonger, was declared dead at the scene yesterday afternoon.

The man had been helping to build an artificial island off Lantau which will hold immigration facilities for the bridge.

"During the operation of a backhoe to the north of the artificial island site … the backhoe and its operator fell into the sea," a Highways Department spokesman said. The department was investigating, he added.

Safety on the bridge has come under the spotlight after a series of accidents.

Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said last month that, by the end of October, three local workers had died and 44 had been injured since work began in 2011.

Two of those deaths, earlier this year, were drownings. The other, in October 2012, came when a platform the victim was working on collapsed. Two contractors were fined almost HK$550,000 over the collapse, which left 14 other workers injured.

The Construction Industry Employees General Union called on the government in September to make it compulsory for workers on the bridge to wear life jackets.

The artificial island and associated work are set to cost Hong Kong taxpayers about HK$5 billion more than its original budget of HK$30.4 billion.

The bridge project has been condemned for its huge cost and environmental impact, while doubts have been cast over its utility, given that fewer than 40,000 vehicles have the cross-border permits needed to use it. It is due to open in 2016.

There have been 19 fatal accidents in the city's construction industry in the first 10 months of the year, compared with 12 in the same period last year, according to government data.