The Singapore Contractors Association (Scal), which has about 2,000 construction industry members, has completed a study on better ways to ferry workers to and from the job, The Straits Times understands.
Calls have gone out to improve transport safety standards for workers, who are often piled into the backs of lorries, along with wooden planks, poles and ladders.
Amid these calls, the latest among several accidents which happened on Sunday left nine people hurt.
Scal did not give details about the report or its recommendations and explained it is still being finalised.
But the association, whose members do some 60% to 70% of all work in the industry, let on it has looked at how the military transports its soldiers.
The Singapore Armed Forces’ five-tonne trucks have safety belts securing soldiers, who sit on foldable benches along the sides.
In last Sunday’s accident, a lorry crashed into two taxis. Of the nine people hurt, three were passengers in the back of the lorry. The driver, in his 20s, was arrested for suspected drink-driving and driving without a licence.
The most high-profile accident this year left 53 foreign workers injured. The mishap in Tuas comprised two almost-simultaneous collisions involving five lorries within metres of each other.
Last year, 184 passengers on the cargo decks of lorries were hurt. Two others died.
Foreign workers – there are some 145,000 in construction jobs – bear the brunt of injuries while being transported to and from work on the back of lorries. – The Straits Times/ Asia News Network
