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[ Industrial Accident of Confined Space ]
[ Industrial Accident of Chemicals ]


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Tragic End to Hero's Rescue Bid
Summary
    An engineer's heroic attempt to save two drainage workers from a toxic gas-filled sewer beneath a hotel in Quarry Bay ended in tragedy when he was overcome by fumes and died.
    Grand Plaza Hotel duty engineer had pulled out one of the workers but collapsed as he tried to rescue the other. Firemen rescued the second worker but could not save the engineer.


Circumstance and Observations
    The engineer was called to the premises' basement in Hong On Street with a security guard at about 1:00am when the two workers failed to resurface after going into a manhole.
    The two workers, employed by a private sewerage cleaning company, were working with their supervisor, who raised the alarm. The engineer climbed into the drain through the manhole while the security guard and the supervisor stayed outside. He pulled out one of the two workers with the help of the guard and supervisor. When he tried to pull the other worker out, he collapsed inside. When firemen with breathing apparatus went into the manhole, the second worker was found hanging on to the ladder and the engineer was lying unconscious in water.
    They were taken to the hospital, where the engineer was declared dead. The other two workers were in a stable condition.
    A spokeswoman for the Labour Department said that two toxic gases - hydrogen sulphide and carbon monoxide - were detected inside the sewer and their concentration was quite strong. She said the concentration of each gas was about 300 parts per million. According to the department's Occupational Exposure Limits, the safety concentration level for hydrogen sulphide is about 15 parts per million and workers should stay inside confined spaces with the gas for less than 15 m inutes. An inspection to check for poisonous gases or whether there is enough oxygen in a sewer is required before workers are allowed inside. However, there was no gas detector or ventilation equipment at the scene.




Accident Causation Model
1. Which accident causation model should be applied?
(Sequence of events, an updat e domino sequence or multiple causation theory)


Preserving event data (5-P's)
2.What are the 5-P's?


Analysis the Data
3. Please develop the fault tree analysis to represent the root causes of this case.
Please click here to get the answer

Prevention Recommended
4. Do you have any prevention recommended?


Legal Action
Which occupational safety a health legislation that might be applicable to this accident?