News
Construction worker’s death from 40-foot fall prompts order for safety gear
View(s):Colombo Additional Coroner Ashroff Rumi this week suggested that construction workers be provided with safety gear.
He said this at the inquiry into Wednesday’s (27) death of a 30-year-old worker who fell 40 feet at a construction site in Charles Place, Colombo 3.
The deceased, Chadan Richard, an unmarried resident of Ussakele, Olangamuwa in Haputale, had been in employment for eight months with the private construction company contracted to construct a six-storeyed housing complex, where the accident took place.
Giving evidence at the inquiry, Company owner Rajamani Sivakumar, 42, a resident of Wellawatta, said the deceased was on the second floor removing planks used as shuttering.
“While removing the planks, he had slipped and fallen through a gap in the concrete. I was on the sixth floor when the incident took place. I looked down when I heard a sound and saw the deceased on a concrete slab below. He was bleeding. We put him into a van and rushed him to Kalubowila Hospital.
Next day he was transferred to the Colombo National Hospital where he was pronounced dead,” he said.
It was revealed at the inquiry that 47 workers were employed at the construction site. The Additional Coroner ordered the owner to provide necessary safety gear to the workers.
Dr. D.L.M. Seneviratne of the Colombo National Hospital who conducted the postmortem, said that death was caused by a head injury and excessive bleeding caused by the blunt force trauma.
The internment was held in Haputale on August 29. Police Sgt T.S. Pathirane and PC Sudath Perera of the Dehiwela Police Station assisted in the investigation.