VietNamNet Bridge – Three workers lost their lives and another had a narrow escape in a serious accident at a construction site in HCM City's Tan Binh District last Friday.

Three male workers died of suffocation after being trapped in a basement tank meant to store water to be used for fighting fire at an eight-storey hotel under construction on Hiep Nhat Street. Witnesses at the site said that the three died of asphyxiation. More details of the accident were not available.

According to Ly Van Thanh, a worker at the construction site, after the afternoon break, Bui Thanh Quang, the foreman, asked two workers, Pham Van Dong, 29 and Nguyen Minh Tam, 36 to get into the underground tank to remove the formwork after the cement had dried.

After the first piece of formwork was taken out, the foreman did not hear any sounds or responses from the two workers even after he called out to them. Quang, 37, stepped into the tank himself to check, but he also did not return.

Another worker, Vo Cong Dinh, 20 who felt something was wrong, climbed into the tank to find his colleagues. A few minutes later, workers on the ground heard the cry for help from Dinh. After 30 minutes, Dinh was brought out in critical condition and rushed to Tan Binh Hospital with oxygen insufficiency.

The three other men had stopped breathing before they were taken out of the tank. According to preliminary reports, the tank had no oxygen, causing the three workers to suffocate. Construction inspectors in Tan Binh District have suspended the project and authorities are investigating the case.

The building, invested in by private landlord Tran Tien Dat, was being constructed by the Tien An Construction Company.

Poor safety awareness

This is not the only case of construction workers dying of suffocation this year as more and more construction sites develop in major cities.

Just a day before the above-mentioned accident, a construction worker had drowned while working at the construction site of Tran Thi Ly Bridge in Da Nang City.

On September 11, two workers died in an underground sewer in District 7, and a month earlier, an employee of the city's water supply company died after getting into an underground pipeline in Binh Tan District.

The main causes for these accidents in HCM City and similar ones elsewhere in the country are poor management and knowledge of safety regulations among contractors. A shortage of inspectors who are sent to check workplace safety at construction sites was also a factor, experts said.

The HCM City Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs recently reported that the number of work-related accidents has sharply increased the city, especially in the construction sector.

At construction sites, main and auxiliary contractors did not pay enough attention to ensuring labour safety for workers. According to the department, about 50 per cent of major enterprises in HCM City have labour councils supposed to cover labour safety, but most of them lack knowledge of workplace safety needs.

During the first half of this year, 80 workplace accidents have been reported in HCM City, mostly caused by unsafe equipment. This marks an increase of 20.8 per cent over the same period last year.

Raising awareness among workers and contractors to prevent further workplace accidents through frequent education campaigns is urgently needed, but this is not a matter of major concern for most small-and-medium construction enterprises, especially in the construction sector.

The department said it plans to open professional training courses for inspectors as well as improve labour safety awareness among employees and employers through workshops.

Statistics compiled by the Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs show that there were about 6,250 workplace accidents reported nation-wide, causing 550 deaths and 1,221 to suffer serious injuries.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News