Ship repair firm fined $200k over safety lapses following diver’s death
The employer of an untrained commercial diver who was killed by a fallen structure that pinned him underwater at a jetty was fined $200,000 on Tuesday over safety lapses that led to the tragedy.
Mr Muhammad Firdaus Jasni, 27, who was working for Marine Diving & Engineering, died of traumatic asphyxia with lung contusions in 2018 after the incident on Pulau Sebarok, an island south of mainland Singapore.
The company, which builds and repairs ships, was handed the fine after it was convicted of an offence under the Workplace Safety and Health Act.
Ministry of Manpower (MOM) prosecutor Delvinder Singh said that the company had failed to deploy only trained and certified divers for the underwater work. Among other things, it also failed to carry out risk assessments and safe work procedures in relation to the tragedy.
Tan Jiunn Perng, 50, who was the company’s operations manager at the time, was fined $20,000 on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to an offence under the same Act.
He was deemed to have been negligent and endangered the divers’ safety by failing to conduct a risk assessment and establish safe work procedures.
The MOM prosecutor said that Mr Firdaus was not a trained commercial diver as he had not attended either Level 1 or Level 2 of commercial diving training, as required under the relevant Commercial Diver Competency Standard.
Instead, he had only obtained an open water diving certification, which is for recreational scuba divers.
Investigations also found that his then workplace diving supervisor, Mr Koh Chiew Tong, had not attended Levels 3 and 4 of the diving courses – a requirement for such supervisors under the relevant Commercial Diver Competency Standard.
Mr Singh said that on July 23, 2017, a tanker struck the jetty and partially damaged it. As a result, the damaged section had to be demolished. Underwater piles, which are pillar-like structures holding the jetty, also had to be extracted.
Mr Firdaus was part of a dive team of eight assigned to remove the concrete piles.
On June 23, 2018, Mr Koh asked him to install brackets for the piles underwater. The brackets were needed for pile-cutting.
Mr Koh then dived underwater alone after a bracket was installed and cut a pile. He instructed two other divers to cut the next pile.
Mr Singh said: “To prevent a pile from being left without any support after it was cut, the divers were required to ensure it was removed by lifting it to a work barge.
“However, in practice, (Marine Diving & Engineering) continued to cut the piles... with its divers still diving and cutting other piles (nearby).”
Mr Firdaus was underwater when two piles suddenly collapsed. One of them pinned him down underwater.
His colleagues managed to free him, and he was taken back to the surface. They placed him on a pontoon, but by then, he was already unconscious. He was found to be bleeding from his nose and ears when his dive gear was removed.
Mr Firdaus was rushed to the National University Hospital, where he died at around 7.30pm that day.
Tan and Marine Diving & Engineering were represented by lawyers Alfred Lim and Sean Choong from Meritus Law.
The lawyers had asked for the company to be given a fine of not more than $180,000. They also pleaded for Tan to be fined between $15,000 and $20,000.
They stated in their mitigation plea: “(Tan and Marine Diving & Engineering) did not commit the offence wilfully. These were unfortunate and negligent breaches of safety made by the said parties at the material time.”
The lawyers also said that their clients wish to express their sincere remorse following the tragedy.
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