Thai editorial: Buildings built on graveyards

[webfact]

EDITORIAL
Buildings built on graveyards
The Nation

Frequent and often deadly accidents that befall workers on Thai construction sites demonstrate the urgent need for tighter safety laws

BANGKOK: -- Ten workers were killed and 16 others injured on Tuesday in Samut Prakan's Bang Phli district when a concrete structure at a construction site collapsed.

Some 30 workers were sitting eating lunch when the floor of an elevated corridor being built above them broke in two and fell to the ground.

While our architects often come up with great ideas for how their buildings should look and function, too little thought goes into safety standards for the people who actually build them.

Some of those killed were workers from Cambodia and Myanmar. The youngest was 15. Six died at the scene, while four others succumbed to their injuries in hospital. The workers were likely breadwinners for their families.

As usual, various parties expressed shock and vowed to investigate what went wrong in a bid to avert a repeat of such a deadly accident. Financial compensation has been promised to the injured and the families of the dead.

To say that the incident underscores Thailand's problem with construction-site safety would be an understatement. Time and again we hear news of such accidents. And it is always followed by a slew of proposals made by experts, from better labour rights to stronger safety measures. Meanwhile contractors are seldom penalised for mishaps and accidents on construction sites.

The fact that these accidents continue to occur with such frequency indicates that the potentially life-saving advice falls on deaf ears. As the memory of a tragedy fades, the public pressure to close safety loopholes dies down and construction workers go back to sites that remain death traps.

Billboards outside the sites declare "Safety First", but a quick glance through the gates is usually all you need to see that basic safety measures are not being enforced or followed.

Many workers go without hardhats and few even have the protection of steel-toed work boots or protective gloves and clothing. This is not to say that such basic items will prevent accidents. But if the construction companies won't fund and enforce these basic measures, one has to wonder how much they care about the safety of their workers. "Get the building built in time - and by any means necessary," seems to be the thinking of many managers.

Thai authorities and policymakers need to review construction-related laws and regulations. We need laws that do away with the quick-fix approach, which is costing lives all over the country. The notion that one accident is one too many needs to be implanted in our hearts and minds if we are to do this right.

Part of our complacency stems from the fact that society looks down on construction work as a form of employment, since it's often taken up by cheaper migrant labourers from neighbouring countries. On this note, we need to ensure that foreign construction workers receive the same treatment and rewards as their Thai counterparts. After all, it is their cheap labour that helped Thailand grow into an industrialised country. Treating them as equals is the least we owe them.


-- The Nation 2014-02-28

[kurnell]

Hired expat engineers. Problem solved.

[schbang]

Buildings built on graveyards

derrrrrrrr……….thai safety - an oxymoron.

RIP workers - you only tried to make a living. Now snapped from you.

[Cylon]

Health and safety is almost non existent in Thailand,just look how they transport their (Animals) Myanmar labourers to work and back.Up to 13-14 standing up in the back of a Hilux.

[NongKhaiKid]

Hired expat engineers. Problem solved.

Unfortunately they may insist on playing by the rules and that's hardly Thainess.

Building codes and regulations ? What codes and regulations ?

[Soutpeel]

For a minute there, when I read buildings built on graveyards, thought they were going to blame the ghosts for the accident

[Soutpeel]

Hired expat engineers. Problem solved.

Yeah right

[Soutpeel]

Hired expat engineers. Problem solved.

Unfortunately they may insist on playing by the rules and that's hardly Thainess.

Building codes and regulations ? What codes and regulations ?

Only way you improve this situation is by enforcing consequences on the companies concerned ie fines, jail terms for people etc etc

[diehard60]

Hired expat engineers. Problem solved.

Unfortunately they may insist on playing by the rules and that's hardly Thainess.

Building codes and regulations ? What codes and regulations ?

Beleive it or not thailand does have a quaility assuance. These people do go out to inspect the construction sites (roads, buildings, etc) with their hands behind their backs openes of course to take the bribes.

[JRSoul]

Beleive it or not thailand does have a quaility assuance. These people do go out to inspect the construction sites (roads, buildings, etc) with their hands behind their backs openes of course to take the bribes.

Irony is a post about "quaility assuance" loaded with spelling mistakes.

[X pat]

What Thailand needs is Occupational Safety & Health Administration rules enforced here like we have in the United States,and Briton.

[neverdie]

What Thailand needs is Occupational Safety & Health Administration rules enforced here like we have in the United States,and Briton.

Do you mean like a whole 'other' group of officials who can turn a blind eye while the cop a backhander?

Yeah, that'll work.

RIP.

[soalbundy]

What Thailand needs is Occupational Safety & Health Administration rules enforced here like we have in the United States,and Briton.

Great Britain, but since that would be two words you could make a spelling mistake with try UK. I do hope you are an American and not British.

[noitom]

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Beleive it or not thailand does have a quaility assuance. These people do go out to inspect the construction sites (roads, buildings, etc) with their hands behind their backs openes of course to take the bribes.

Irony is a post about "quaility assuance" loaded with spelling mistakes.

And it's an "editorial."

[marko kok prong]

Last time i was in Bangkok my room overlooked construction site next door,they all had hard hats,but flip flops on their feet,also working seven stories or so up,putting in windows i think,no safety harness,one slip,dead,but everyone seemed to be having sanuk, i guess thats the main thing for them.

[bbradsby]

Last time i was in Bangkok my room overlooked construction site next door,they all had hard hats,but flip flops on their feet,also working seven stories or so up,putting in windows i think,no safety harness,one slip,dead,but everyone seemed to be having sanuk, i guess thats the main thing for them.

Hard hats and boots are all well and good for day-to-day jobsite injury protection, but would have made no difference whatsoever on this particular accident scene where a PT slab failed catastrophically and quickly, judging by the photographic & text-based evidence. Shoring being pulled too soon, or inadequate PT tendon tension, or tendon placement error are the first things that I'd look at. PT construction is not low-tech, and mistakes are costly; the fact that it is the norm in LoS high rise construction has been alarming to me on an ongoing basis. The fact that the prominent Ital-Thai is in charge of this project is truly hair-raising as they are/have been in charge of many large, complex projects.

Codes & safety regs are in place in LoS, but unenforced by government agencies where a few baht are the easy resolution. Only rule of law, an independent judiciary, plus a swarm of hungry lawyers on commission - thus enforceable contracts & regs - will get the undivided attention of contractors, owners, engineers and construction management firms. I'm no fan of lawyers, but they do serve a purpose in this case, and would turn this situation around much more quickly than any bureaucrats anywhere in the world.

Edited February 28, 2014 by bbradsby

[Jonmarleesco]

'Part of our complacency stems from the fact that society looks down on construction work as a form of employment ...' This sentence needs restructuring, plus a couple of commas. If someone is paid a salary, he/she is employed.

And the Thais' complacency with safety goes way beyond building sites - a child fell through a hole in the floor on Siam Paragon's [obviously premature] opening day. It goes way beyond driving standards and ability, or otherwise. Everywhere you look, there are accidents/incidents waiting to happen, and happen they do, time and again. Tackling it needs a government with an unhindered agenda, a focus on its job, and a commitment to vastly improving health and safety, and the perception of what it is, across all areas of work, study and leisure.

[seajae]

If they were all supplied hard hats, steel toed boots etc they would be sold the next day, lets face it, here money counts and making it anyway possible is always the first priority. Until such time as the country is brought forward it will never change, when 70% or so of the population say graft is great as long as they benefit what can we expect. The other side is the increase in building costs if they actually had to abide by building regulations no one would use them as here the cheapest quote is the best quote, quality, worker safety etc do not come into it. To live here we just have to accept what everyone else does whether we agree or not, as an ex building tradesman it really hits home just how bad it is.

[kimamey]

If they were all supplied hard hats, steel toed boots etc they would be sold the next day, lets face it, here money counts and making it anyway possible is always the first priority. Until such time as the country is brought forward it will never change, when 70% or so of the population say graft is great as long as they benefit what can we expect. The other side is the increase in building costs if they actually had to abide by building regulations no one would use them as here the cheapest quote is the best quote, quality, worker safety etc do not come into it. To live here we just have to accept what everyone else does whether we agree or not, as an ex building tradesman it really hits home just how bad it is.

If they were all supplied hard hats, steel toed boots etc they would be sold the next day,

In that case they don't work on the site. That might make keeping the equipment financially beneficial.