Traffic controller, 72, dies after being run over by truck at Lim Chu Kang

SINGAPORE — A 72-year-old traffic controller died last week after he was run over by a truck while at work in Lim Chu Kang.

The Singaporean traffic controller was hit by the vehicle exiting the premises at 150 Neo Tiew Road on 16 August in the morning, a Ministry of Manpower (MOM) spokesperson said on Thursday (25 August), in response to media queries from Yahoo News Singapore.

The worker, who was employed by Chew’s Agriculture, was sent to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital where he later died from his injuries, the spokesperson added. The employer and occupier are investigating the accident.

“As a general safety measure, traffic controllers should be extra alert and sensitised of the dangers when they have to manage the blind spots of heavy vehicles,” the spokesperson said.

In a separate statement on the accident, the Workplace Safety and Health Council (WSHC) said the truck had stopped at the main gate of the company’s premises to exit to the main road.

The traffic controller tried to get the driver’s attention and moved to the left of the truck. “He then went to the front of the truck, when the truck suddenly moved forward and ran over him,” said WSHC.

The deaths of the traffic controller and a Bangladeshi worker, whose body was found two days after a crane collapsed at Keppel shipyard in Tuas earlier this week, have brought the number of workplace deaths in Singapore to 34 so far this year.

On 9 May, Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong expressed concern over the spate of workplace deaths since the start of the year, saying it was “not acceptable”. In a Facebook post then, Lee urged companies to take workplace safety seriously. At the time of his post, there were 20 workplace deaths arising from accidents.

WSHC also highlighted an earlier workplace death on 27 April due to poor traffic management. A 39-year-old worker died after the Indian national was run over by a moving prime mover in Yishun.

The statutory body under MOM issued several guidelines to prevent such accidents, such as having a workplace traffic management plan, clear traffic layout and route planning, and robust traffic control and communications.

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