Wall collapse: Construction worker killed by falling concrete

A section of a newly-built wall hit him on the head

RAWALPINDI: A labourer died on Tuesday after being hit on the head by a falling piece of concrete at an under-construction building at the National College of Arts (NCA) campus near Liaqat Bagh.

Muhammad Farooq, 28-year-old lift operator, was climbing up some cement blocks at about 10pm on Tuesday when strong winds pushed off part of an under-construction second floor wall. The block hit Farooq on the head, causing his death.

Sub Inspector Abid Shah of City Police Station said that the deceased’s brother and brother-in-law of told the police that Farooq’s death was result of an accident. The police officer said that they gave a written statement to the police mentioning that they did not want to take legal action or investigation the death.

Shah said that a postmortem was not performed as the relatives immediately took the body back to Multan for burial.

Meanwhile, the NCA administration is referring to the incident as a case of poor workplace safety.

NCA Director Dr Nadeem Umer Tarar said that the death of the labourer was shocking, adding that it could be a result of the absence of standard safety measures at the work site.

The director noted that there were reports that the construction of the building was not up to the mark and standard procedures were not followed.

Dr Tarar said that he had warned students to keep away from the work site, especially after the death of the labourer.

Contactor Usman said that the incident took place due to a storm overnight. He said labourers were resting after having their dinner and that no construction work was being done at the time of the accident. “At around 9:30pm, strong winds led to the collapse of a wall on the second floor that was built earlier on Tuesday.

A falling block hit Farooq on the head and he died at District Headquarter Hospital.

On safety measures, the contractor said that labourers followed standard measures such as wearing helmets while working. He reiterated that there was no work going on when the accident took place.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 12^th, 2016.