Singapore Government Press Release
Media Division, Ministry of Information and The Arts, 36th Storey,
PSA Building, 460 Alexandra Road, Singapore 119963. Tel: 3757794/5
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On 24 Mar 97, a fatal accident happened at about 1.15 pm in the shipyard of Jurong Shipyard Limited (New Ship Division)(JSL) at 11 Jurong Pier Road. Three workers were killed and one worker was injured.
On 24 March 97, a worker from JSL, Poovanaswaran, and another worker from Midas Marine Services, Veerappan Balamurugan were lowering a compressed air operated water pump into the fuel oil tank located at the footing of an oil rig " Tahara " to pump sea water out of the tank. After they had placed the pump into the fuel oil tank, Poovanaswaran went away to turn on the compressed air supply to operate the pump. However, the pump did not work.
Veerappan went into the tank to check the water pump. While he was climbing down the tank, he collapsed and fell to the bottom of the tank. When Poovanaswaran returned to the tank, he noticed Veerappan floating in the water inside the tank. He summoned help from the JSL's safety department. Another worker from another company, Soon Hong Marine, Vasu A/L Kuppusamy, and two safety personnel from JSL (Shunmugam Krishnan and Sahudin Bin Hamid ) rushed to the scene and went into the tank to rescue Veerappan.
On their way down, Shunmugam and Vasu collapsed and fell into the tank. The other safety personnel, Sahudin, realised that something was amiss and quickly climbed out of the tank. The three workers who collapsed into the tank were found dead. Sahudin Bin Hamid was sent to hospital and is reported to be in stable condition.
Preliminary investigations by the Ministry's Department of Industrial Safety revealed that there was no entry permit issued by Jurong Shipyard Limited for entry into the tank. After the accident, Jurong Shipyard Ltd conducted a gas testing of the tank and found that the level of oxygen was low. It is suspected that the workers collapsed due to the deficiency of oxygen inside the tank.
The Ministry is continuing its investigations into the accident.