Three Die In 69-Storey Plunge

[Flashermac]

 

Three billboard installers died when they fell from a suspended platform at the 69th floor of Baiyoke Tower II, Thailand’s tallest building, in Ratchathewi district of Bangkok on Monday.

 

Reports said five workers were standing on the platform installing new printed advertising material on the exterior of the 89-storey highrise building when the accident occurred.

 

A cable supporting part of platform broke shortly after 2pm. The platform dropped sharply at an angle and three of the workers fell off, plunging to their death.

 

The bodies of the victims, who were not immediately identified, were found on a 36th floor balcony, beside a swimming pool on the 20th floor and on an outside mini-golf driving range on the 18th floor.

 

The two other workers managed to grab a handhold on the platform.

 

Pleonchit Klongudom, 32, said he and his friend had to hold on desperately for more than half an hour before the building’s staff broke a window glass and rescued them.

 

The Baiyoke Tower II is 304 metres (994 feet) high.

 

My link

 

 

[Mekong]

Why were they not wearing a Full Body Harness?

 

Again Health and Safety in Thailand takes a back seat

[Flashermac]

One of the readers' comments is from a former construction supervisor who said that in the west safety harnesses are mandatory at any height above ONE METER. TIT all over again.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[khunsanuk]

Hi,

 

"Why were they not wearing a Full Body Harness?"

 

Exactly the first question that came to my mind. Somehow I am not surprised though

 

Sanuk!

[Mekong]

One of the readers' comments is from a former construction supervisor who said that in the west safety harnesses are mandatory at any height above ONE METER. TIT all over again.

 

Not exactly true Flash, each client has their own WAH (Working At Heights) policy, Royal Dutch Shell specification is that a FBH is mandatory above 1.5 Meters, Aramco is 2 Meters.

[ThaiHome]

Why were they not wearing a Full Body Harness?

 

Again Health and Safety in Thailand takes a back seat

 

 

You know as well as I do that on major projects HSE is heavily emphasized. Unfortunately there is a long, long, way to go in other jobs. From other articles on the accident, it appears harnesses were available, but the workers choose not wear them that day and there was no supervision to make them do it.

 

My first 20 years in construction was in the US. I have seen a huge improvement since 1977 when I started. My first job was working some 80 feet up on cable trays in a chemical plant construction. Though we wore safety belts (that would have broken your back if you fell) we rarely hooked them up. You could ride the headache ball up to the 80ft level. I worked a major job with over 15,000 workers during the early 80’s. Over the 7 years, 5 people were killed. Things have changed a lot since those days.

 

It requires a huge cultural change that not involves management providing a safer working environment, but changing the way workers think about it as well.

 

TH

[Horneytorney]

Not exactly true Flash, each client has their own WAH (Working At Heights) policy, Royal Dutch Shell specification is that a FBH is mandatory above 1.5 Meters, Aramco is 2 Meters.

for Thailand FBH is mandatory above 300 Meters! Wonder why nobody knows this among all those Thailand experts on the board!

[YimSiam]

300 meters obviously based on scientific calculation, as falls of 275 meters are clearly only a minor incident, after which a worker can stand up, brush himself off, and get back on the horse...

 

I've been in and out of Thailand since 1995, and have - until recently - never considered the Baiyoke because I had seen posts, probably on this board, that described it as a dangerous firetrap... However, a few weeks ago I was in town and saw that they have a reasonably priced Presidential Suite on the 74th floor, so decided to take it for a few days. On the first day, I was sitting in the room with a 24-hour-friend, and felt myself, and the building, gently swaying back and forth, a couple seconds in one direction, then back in the other, then back again. Somewhat unsettling, but I chalked it up to being on the 74th floor and assumed it was a built in feature for shoddily constructed high-rises. (Was not exactly sober, and not paying so much attention to detail...) Only later in the day did I see the TV reports of the earthquake off Indonesia, and subsequent tsunami warning! The swaying back and forth on the 74th floor was the effect of the earthquake - I finally stay at the Baiyoke, and within hours I'm swinging in the breeze hundreds of feet above the ground, in a reputed firetrap!

 

For those still considering Baiyoke, I can say that the size of the Presidential Suite is decent - long and narrow, with windows along one side - but the quality of the room is very low, the Suites were obviously an afterthought, and show none of the high quality that one would expect from the top-flight rooms at any of Bangkok's better hotels. Would not do it again.

 

YimSiam

[YimSiam]

PS: Yes, guest-friendly - at least to my guests, and they were hardly models of good behavior!

 

Wait, am I hijacking a thread about a tragic accident and turning it into a scurrilous rating of the hotel's suitability for acts of vice and moral turpitude? Indeed. So sorry.

 

YimSiam

[gobbledonk]

A nightmare scenario - cant say I envy the survivors either. Imagine hanging on to that dangling scaffolding for 30 minutes, seeing the bodies of your co-workers sprawled on various floors below you. Horrific.