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3,200 Who Died at Work Sites

The need to check a distressing feature of the workshop scene—mounting industrial accidents—was stressed in TV Singapore's Economic Report programme last night. The survey pointed to an increase last year of 200 such accidents of 1973, to bring the total to 3,200 and said that, it was proposed to impose heavier fines for contravening the safety clauses of the Factories Act.

The secretary. Occupational Health and Safety Committee of the NTUC, and a Member of Parliament, Mr Ivan Baptist, said: "Many people have been killed in Singapore last year and even early this year in both the building-construction and the shipbuilding industry. A lot of these accidents result from falls or asphyxia in the shipbuilding industry."

He recalled that a woman was killed when the hair on her head was scalped in a factory in the manufacturing sector. From time to time many construction workers fell from buildings. "It is all due to personal failure which results in unsafe acts and conditions," he said.