In response to the recent construction site accidents in Hong Kong, Construction Industry Council (CIC) Chairman, Thomas Ho On-shing, said that the problems are the same, that is, some people in the industry are greedy for speed and have not done a good job of dynamic risk assessment before commencing the construction works.
Ho noted that several of the incidents took place in narrow spaces, and if the dynamic risk assessment had been done properly, the workers would not have been at the location of the incident and would have inspected the cables and important parts before starting the work.
However, many of the workers felt that they had years of experience and had overlooked the importance of safety measures, according to Ho. "The workers were in their 50s and had 30 or even 40 years of experience, so they felt that what they had done in the past was already correct."
Ho also said that heavy penalties would only have a short-term effect, and that the problem could only be solved by improving the industry's safety culture. "I would be grateful if employers could visit the construction sites and change their culture with management concepts."
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