Seven dead in Chinese tunnel collapse

17 November, 2008 By Olivia Boyd

Fourteen other workers missing after incident on Hangzhou subway project.The death toll has risen to seven at a construction site in eastern China, where a tunnel collapsed on Saturday.

Fourteen other workers are still missing following the incident in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, in which a 75m section of a subway tunnel collapsed.

Around 50 workers and 11 vehicles were trapped in the rubble following the accident on Saturday afternoon. An investigation is under way and all subway construction works in the city have been suspended for safety checks.

The head of the rescue effort, Wang Guangrong, said that the chances of finding further survivors were slim following flooding at the site from a nearby river. Water levels in the crater had reached 6m, he said.

More than 1,000 police and firefighters have taken part in the rescue effort in Hangzhou, where the first phase of construction of a subway network is in progress.

The £3bn project is set to be completed in 2011 and will run from the north-east of the city to the south. Hangzhou wants to build eight subway lines by 2050.

Three dead and eight hurt in Korean site collapse

18 February, 2009 By Olivia Boyd

Workers buried in rubble after 22m-deep pit collapses at chemicals research centre construction site.Three building workers have been killed and a further eight injured after a collapse at a construction site in Korea.

The men were buried under soil and debris when a metal beam buckled at a chemicals research centre in Pangyo on Sunday, causing six container boxes to fall 25m.

Eleven workers are thought to have become trapped under rubble in a 22m-deep pit at the site on the southern outskirts of Seoul.

One of the injured workers, 66-year-old Cha Seung-dong, told Korean newspaper JoongAng Daily: “When we were about to lay pipes at the excavation site, earth crumbled from the northern side. I ran in the other direction, but lost consciousness after being hit in the neck by a collapsing steel frame.”

Around 150 policemen and firefighters spent five hours trying to rescue workers trapped under the rubble.

The building, which is being developed for SK Chemicals as part of a new Seoul satellite city, began construction in September. It is thought the accident may have been triggered by rain and warm weather softening the ground around the site.

The scheme's main contractor, SK Engineering & Construction, said the company would “do its best to give medical treatment and compensation to the victims as well as to find the accurate cause of the accident”.

Two die on Teruel building site

By: thinkSPAIN , Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Two builders, one Rumanian and one Portugese, died yesterday in an accident on a building site at the 'Segundo de Chomón' secondary school in Teruel when various sheets of reinforced concrete gave way.

As well as the fatal victims, the accident also left another Portugese builder in hospital with a fractured leg.

A number of other workers on the building site had to be treated in situ for minor injuries and some of the witnesses to the accident had to receive psychological help.

The concrete sheets fell directly onto the two fatal victims, who were spreading sand below the structure at the time. The worker with the fractured leg was working on top of the structure when it fell.

An investigation into the accident has been launched straight away by the independent Aragon Institute of Health and Safety in the Workplace.

This accident takes the construction site death toll to four so far this year in Aragon and trade unions are calling for a thorough investigation and more measures to prevent accidents of this kind.

Adolfo Barrena of the Izquierda Unida party in Aragon, denounced the incident, saying that yet again people have lost their lives in the course of doing their jobs and called for 'urgent, resolute and decisive measures against accidents in the workplace.

Scaffolding contractor cited in fatal collapse

By Pauline Repard

Union-Tribune Staff Writer

2:00 a.m. February 25, 2009

SAN DIEGO — A scaffolding company caused the collapse of a wooden walkway cover in downtown San Diego that killed one man and injured at least 14 others in August, a state agency has concluded.

A report by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health said Paramount Scaffold Inc. created a hazard when workers stacked scaffolding planks and metal frames against the pedestrian canopy.

The company was sent a notice that it will be fined $10,120 for two serious violations of state safety regulations.

The 200-foot-long walkway cover, along Imperial Avenue at 15th Street in East Village, collapsed on pedestrians Aug. 28. Fifteen or 16 people were hospitalized, and one, Tyrone Allen, 49, died Feb. 12 of injuries he suffered that day.

Some of the injured were homeless people who lived at St. Vincent de Paul Village, across the street from the construction site. The Cal-OSHA report said some shelter patrons used the walkway as a refuge.

The cover was erected to protect pedestrians from debris from the construction of a four-story apartment complex called Studio 15, an extension of St. Vincent de Paul Village being built by Affirmed Housing Group of San Diego.

Cal-OSHA began an investigation within 40 minutes of the accident, according to its report, issued yesterday.

The report said four Paramount Scaffolding workers stacked planks and frames against the walkway canopy about 8:15 a.m. About 11:30 a.m., a crane operator saw the walkway bowing beneath the weight of eight to 10 planks. He warned another workman, who told the scaffolding crews and his supervisor.

Security cameras showed the walkway start to lean, then suddenly buckle and collapse at 12:20 p.m. Several people scattered amid the debris; others were trapped.

The actions by the Paramount Scaffolding workers violated two state safety regulations against overloading scaffolding and creating a hazard with stored material, Cal-OSHA concluded.

The report categorized the violations as “serious.”

The company has a right to contest the fines.

“We haven't seen it (the report), at least not as of right now,” Jim McCormick, chief financial officer of Paramount Scaffold Inc. in Los Angeles, said yesterday. “We talked to Cal-OSHA a week ago, and they told us it was two weeks away.”

San Diego attorney Todd Neal, representing Allen's widow, Tina Allen, and the couple's three adult children, filed a lawsuit within days of the collapse. Allen's injuries instantly made him a quadriplegic, Neal said.

The lawsuit alleged negligence, but because Allen has died, it will be amended to claim wrongful death, Neal said.

Named as defendants are property owner Studio 15 Housing Partners, general contractor Allgire General Contractors Inc. and Paramount Scaffold. Allgire and Studio 15 could not be reached for comment late last night.

Neal said it was significant that the scaffolding workers were warned that the walkway was beginning to buckle.

“They did nothing,” he said.

Staff writers Adrian Vore and Greg Gross and researcher Denise Davidson contributed to this report.

Worker who died in accident at McCarran identified

A view of construction at McCarran International Airport Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009. Construction worker Byron “PK” Souza, 25, of Las Vegas died of injuries suffered in an accident at the site Monday. Reports indicate Souza was working in a ditch at the terminal roadways site at about 11 a.m. when the operator of a Bobcat earth mover lost control of his vehicle and ran the worker over.

A view of construction at McCarran International Airport Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009. Construction worker Byron "PK" Souza, 25, of Las Vegas died of injuries suffered in an accident at the site Monday. Reports indicate Souza was working in a ditch at the terminal roadways site at about 11 a.m. when the operator of a Bobcat earth mover lost control of his vehicle and ran over the worker.

The construction worker who died at the new Terminal 3 roadways project at McCarran International Airport on Monday has been identified as 25-year-old Byron "PK" Souza of Las Vegas, the Clark County Coroner's Office said today.

The cause and manner of death has not been determined, a spokeswoman for the coroner's office said.

Souza died at 11:30 a.m. Monday at Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center. He was a laborer working for Las Vegas Paving Corp., said Randy Walker, Clark County director of aviation.

Reports indicate Souza was working in a ditch at the terminal roadways site at about 11 a.m. Monday when the operator of a Bobcat earth mover lost control of his vehicle and ran the worker over.

The reason the operator lost control of the machine has not been determined. The incident is under investigation by the Nevada Occupational Safety & Health Administration.