Falling kills worker plank

He was manning his security post at a construction site at Jalan Tukang in Jurong when he saw workers running to the other side of the site.

Curious, Mr Anwar Husson followed them to an area near the crane where a crowd of workers had already gathered.

As the security guard peered over the heads of the people in front of him, he saw a shocking sight: There was a man lying in a pool of blood on the ground.

Mr Anwar, 25, said: "Blood was flowing from the back of his head, his eyes, nose and mouth. It was really scary."

Near the man was a wooden plank about two metres long, he said.

Mr Anwar recognised the victim when he took a closer look - an acquaintance who was a construction worker at the site.

"He used to hang out with my friends and me at work, and we would talk for a bit. He was really friendly even though he was much older than us," he said.

VICTIM

Workers at the construction site identified the victim as Mr Ali Rahmat, 39, a Bangladeshi national.

In the incident that happened at about 6.40pm on Monday, it is believed that he was struck by the wooden plank, which weighed about 15kg and had dropped from the sixth storey of the building.

According to Chinese evening daily Lianhe Wanbao, Mr Ali had been working in Singapore for eight months at the construction site for an industrial building to be completed this year.

The report also mentioned that one of the workers had tried to warn others of the falling plank.

The police told The New Paper that when they arrived, Mr Ali was injured but still alive. Later, a paramedic from the Singapore Civil Defence Force pronounced him dead at the scene.

A relative of Mr Ali's told Wanbao that he was married, and that his wife and two sons, age one and nine live in Bangladesh.

They said he lived frugally in order to send his salary back home to his family.

The relative added that Mr Ali was a loving father and would send $800 to $900 of his salary back to Bangladesh every month.

Wanbao reported that Mr Ali's family will not be coming to Singapore. His employer, Fong Yue Development, will fly his body back to Bangladesh instead.

A spokesman for the company told Wanbao that they will handle Mr Ali's funeral and other arrangements.

The spokesman said they had spoken to the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) about the case, and will be making compensations according to MOM guidelines.

Following the incident, the area where Mr Ali died was cordoned off and there was no word on when construction work on that part of the building would resume.

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OTHER INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS

FEBRUARY 2014

A tipper truck driver in his 40s was killed when his head got caught between his truck's tipping body and the chassis at KSL Engineering at Tampines Road.

JANUARY 2014

One worker died and 10 were injured at the construction site of a family entertainment centre in Sentosa when part of the formwork collapsed. They fell from the three-storey structure.

NOVEMBER 2013

A worker, 39, was killed at a construction site in Changi when eight heavy glass door panels fell on him, pinning him to the ground.