LETTER | Seriously, are our construction sites a war zone where fatal mishaps can happen anytime?

One day it is scaffolding dropping down. The next day it is cranes toppling over or dropping whatever they are hoisting. In the meantime, workers and bystanders suffer.

Is this corruption, incompetency, no enforcement, no training, or apathy? We can pick whatever reasons we want. It really does not matter because the consequence is the same – people die or are injured.

It is about time Malaysia stopped looking at accidents as “acts of God”. Accidents at construction sites have become too rampant and predictable.

How can the top management or the enforcement authorities be so blind if not governed by greed, corruption or apathy?

It is hard to believe they can’t see that in many instances accidents are just waiting to happen. The issue is, who cares about safety standards and regulations when apathy and unfettered profit motivation have taken centre stage?

When a crane drops something, don’t just investigate or blame the crane driver. The issue of competency, training, and certification of crane drivers comes into the picture which, in reality, is the purview of the management and regulatory authorities.

When scaffoldings give way, killing workers or innocent passers-by, it is not the carelessness of workers or the misadventure of bystanders. Again, it is engineers and regulators who must bear responsibility.

If workers know how to take care of safety standards, they won’t be workers earning minimum wage. Similarly, passers-by can’t be blamed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time when construction is over roads and highways that people use daily.

What has happened to all the investigations of past mishaps? Has any engineer, top management, or regulatory authority been held responsible?

Albert Einstein once said that 'insanity' was “doing the same thing over and over again, expecting to achieve different results”. Is this what we are doing?

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