Free fall of a carrier lift kills four workers in Kakrail.

The dead were doing their overtime after completing their regular shift from 8:00am to 5:00pm. The lift was carrying 25 packets of tiles each weighed 28 kg to 13th floor along with the four workers when cable snap caused free fall. They were rescued from the pile of tiles and taken to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors declared them dead.

Ramna Thana Police is investigating the matter to find whether there was any lack of safety precaution by the authority. A site engineer is detained from there.

According to the national building code, no construction material can be carried by hoist. A separate carrier lift should be there for workers if necessary.

Bangladesh Institute of Labor Studies situational analysis shows that the number of construction workplace related accidents was 73 in 2010, 56 in 2009 and 100 in 2008. Their study found 68 percent of the workers blame lack of safety precaution for those accidents and 43 percent workers didn’t receive compensation from the authority after accident.