lightandbitter2

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-38689250

Wonder how many others went with him

Bahtatboy

"Rights group Amnesty International says it is the second death reported by the organisers related to a workplace incident at a Qatar stadium in the last three months."

More alarming than it being the second death in the last three months, is the almost-certain fact that many others in that period have gone unreported.

FIFA really does have bloody money in its hands.

DXBtoDOH

What do you expect of this country? An expat FB group is going livid over pictures of a cat whose tail was pulled off by a bunch of local boys. I almost threw up.

lightandbitter2

My point was, the likelihood of a Brit/westerner fatality on his own on a GCC construction site has to be extremely minimal.

I can only think of
a) Tower crane dropping it's load on a portakabin
b) Another Brit/westerner kicking the shit out of him and going too far
c) the pub burning down

Any other scenario (such as a slab collapsing) involves other and probably multiple fatalities, which the media didn't feel were worthy enough to report.

Boomhauer

Easier and safer to do that than tackle the big issues. Kinda like how it is safer and easier to go after the little fish than than the big fish.

Fossildog

Heart attack or some other sudden death by natural causes? It does happen.

Millhouse

maybe he fell down an unsecure lift shaft

Bahtatboy

Something like that is the most likely. Working at Height, Openings, and Vehicles are the most dangerous risks on site. Badly-erected scaffolding, tools/materials falling, inadequate protection of floor openings, poorly-managed separation of vehicles and workmen, stupidity or human error ... the list is endless of what could have caused a single fatality (if it was that). Bit pointless speculating; Western HSE attitudes will never be fully implemented among some cultures.

co durham boy

It was a working at height incident , access or platform related i'm told . Apparently the harness was severed during the fall in some way .


The Midmac - Six Constrcut JV are two of the better outfits out there as well .

Johnnyboy11

"Heart Failure" is the most common cause of death on construction sites and labour camps in Qatar, by far.

Dumbo

You would be surprised at the randomness of things. I have seen too many deaths on building sites in the West for many reasons:

an experienced ductman falling down a HVAC riser;

another experienced guy working through in a hole falling down to the level below and cracking his skull on a concrete plinth;

once from a site office I saw a cleaning cradle cable snap, two guys were on the cradle, one was crushed the other survived (Canary Wharf);

and a completely random tornado in NZ which picked up a portacabin and slammed it into a building, a good friend of mine died that day.

There is no doubt that the H&S is far better in the West, but building sites are incredibly dangerous places at the best of times, but when it is your time....

scrubbedexpat141

Very sad news.

Sites are so dangerous, I hate going on them or near them.

Yesterday I was leaving Sports City, smaller side road, single lane each way. Truck on one side, being loaded by a tower crane.

Guy waving me through with a green light saber thing, I thought 'this is good, some traffic control, sensible attempt'.

Looked up. Load hanging over the road was the load. Slowly rotating, getting a bit lower but definitely not over the truck, let alone the site.

Guy keeps waving me through. Did I move? Not a ****ing chance. It's hard enough to be careful when you've got years of experience on site, let alone being a visiting noddy like me.

jam25mack

So, in fairness suitable H&S precautions were being implemented and it was unfortunate that the harness was damaged in the incident. So just one of those unavoidable things.

Was thinking the same.

At the end of the day sites are dangerous places by definition. To mitigate any risk completely is impossible and there has to be a reasonable balance as otherwise no work could get done. This brings in the argument for training rather than preventative measures.

I spend a lot of time on site. I was there yesterday infact. We are building a duel carriageway through the Hajar mountains. 8 tunnels, many rock cutting etc. There's all kinds of heavy plant everywhere. Lots and lots of risk. Some associated with the activities we are undertaking and some associated with the harsh environment and terrain we are in. Our Contractor's H&S approach is very good though and we as the Consultant support them all we can, however, you can only do so much..... and every now and then accidents happen.

So far we have had one death. This was a few years ago now. A concrete truck driver was cleaning out his mixer by spraying water inside as it rotated (this is the common practice and is done tens of thousands of times a day all across the UAE and millions of times daily across the world). Unfortunately he got to close to the fast rotating mixer and his hi-vis vest got snagged and he got dragged into it........

H&S is improving in the region. There have been night and day changes from when I first arrived over a decade ago which is obviously a good thing...... However, that said, I do hope it doesn't get to the same level as H&S in the UK. It's just ridiculous over there now. Our challenge is trying to get the western approach understood and followed by workers from other cultures.

tintriangle

[QUOTE=jam25mack;12158768 Our challenge is trying to get the western approach understood and followed by workers from other cultures.[/QUOTE]

Absolutely - a culture of safety in a society that 1) believes they have no control over their destiny - so long as they comply with certain rituals, they'll be looked after in due course; 2) life is cheap (QAR 200,000 is I think the level of 'blood money'; 3) in the case of ex-pats, there are plenty more where they came from; 4) has taken less than 50 years to develop from where the 1st world was 6-700 years ago; 5) and where the majority of ex-pat workers barely understand any English or comprehend that anyone may give a toss about their rights

Boomhauer

Evidently Dubai authorities have just enacted new rules on cladding; buildings with non compliant (inadequate fire breaks and resistance) cladding will have to change it. But details are vague.

Dubai has new rules after high-rise fires, but few details | World, News, The Philippine Star | philstar.com