Following the announcement of the death of worker who fell from a building at resort operator Galaxy Entertainment Group’s (GEG) Phase 3 construction site in Cotai on Monday morning, the Judiciary Police (PJ) said yesterday that no foul play was suspected in the death of the 31-year-old non-resident worker from the mainland.
The Judiciary Police (PJ) held a joint special press conference with the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) yesterday at the PJ headquarters about the case.
According to PJ spokesman Lou Chan Fai, the deceased was a non-resident worker from the mainland surnamed Liu who had been working in Macau for four years and on the Galaxy construction site for two years. Liu was in charge of laying wires with other workers on the building’s ground floor over the past two weeks and no one knew why Liu went to an upper floor on Monday, and his workmates did not notice anything unusual in his behaviour.
According to Lou, the Fire Services Bureau (CB) notified the Judiciary Police at 9 a.m. on Monday that a man had died after falling from a height at a Cotai hotel construction site. After the man was rushed to the public Conde de S. Januário Hospital Centre, a doctor confirmed that the victim, who was wearing safety gear, had sustained multiple fractures caused by falling from a height.
Lou said that PJ officers and DSAL officials went to the site to investigate. The Judiciary Police suspected that Liu fell from an upper floor about 28 metres above the ground. The floor is equipped with an iron-framed walkway for workers, with a 1.2-metre-high safety barrier on both sides. There were no traces of fighting, no suicide note or any tools or items left there and there was no CCTV equipment in this area that could have recorded the incident.
According to Lou, the Judiciary Police do not suspect foul play and their investigation will focus on the probability that the victim committed suicide due to financial problems.
The exact cause of death will be confirmed by a forensic examination, Lou said.
DSAL halts construction work above 2 metres
The risk inspection chief of the Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL), Lei Seak Chio, said at the press conference that the bureau sent several officials to the hospital and the construction site to follow up on the case. The officials were notified that Liu was fatally injured when they were carrying out their safety inspections on the site. The officials immediately ordered the contractor to stop all work on the site higher than two metres from the ground.
According to the DSAL official’s preliminary investigations, the victim fell to the ground from a permanent maintenance walkway, where the scaffolding had been removed, about 28 metres above the ground. The officials confirmed that there had been no arrangement recently for the victim to carry out construction work on the walkway. The officials discovered that the walkway showed signs that someone had “crawled over it”, Lei said.
According to Lei, the bureau will maintain their close communication with the Judiciary Police to investigate the cause of the accident, as well as reinforce construction workers’ safety awareness through training programmes. The bureau urged contractors and employers to provide workers with safe work environment conditions to ensure their safety in order to avoid industrial accidents.
Lei said the DSAL officials had conducted safety inspections on the construction site in the past two days and discovered piles of debris on the construction site, a situation that needed to be improved, but no safety problems were found for those working at heights. The site had still not fully resumed work at the time of the press conference.
According to Lei, the bureau will provide assistance to Liu’s bereaved family and follow up on the exact circumstances of the accident.
The press conference did not reveal any details of the victim’s family.
The Labour Affairs Bureau’s (DSAL) Risk Inspection Chief Lei Seak Chio shows a photo of the walkway on an upper floor of a building on the construction site to the media during a special press conference at the Judiciary Police (PJ) headquarters yesterday. Apparently, the victim fell to his death from the walkway on Monday.
Labour Affairs Bureau (DSAL) and Judiciary Police (PJ) officials jointly hold a special press conference yesterday at the PJ headquarters about the fatal fall of a non-resident worker from the mainland on a Cotai construction site. Photos: Camy Tam
