The Singapore branch of Japan’s Nishimatsu Construction, together with three of its staff and a Land Transport Authority (LTA) project director could be charged with criminal negligence following last year’s collapse on the Circle Line underground metro line at Nicoll Highway (T&TI, May 2004, p6).
Four workers died when a section of the Nicoll Highway collapsed on 20 April 2004 after temporary works gave way. Nishimatsu was building the US$165M contract 824, comprising civil works for Nicoll Highway and Boulevard stations plus tunnels, in partnership with local firm Lum Chang as part of the first phase of the LTA’s Circle Line. Nishmatsu has been held liable because the area in question was under the control of Nishimatsu, not the joint venture.
A decision is expected by the end of May on whether to charge the five parties. This follows the submission of a report by a three person government appointed panel tasked to probe the causes of the accident.
Senior State Counsel Ong Hian Sun has already called for the five to be charged during closing submissions at the inquiry in early April. He said: ”There is a clear and established causative link between the under-design of the temporary works and the collapse. It is clear that the under-design of the temporary works resulted from the negligence of NCC (Nishimatsu Construction) and/or its officers.”
Outlining his accusations of negligence against Nishimatsu and the four men, Ong said Nishimatsu Construction failed to show due diligence and reasonable care and its under-design of temporary structures holding up the excavated area led to the collapse.
With regard to Nishimatsu Construction project director Shun Sugawara, Ong said he did not look at instrument readings, nor had any idea of excessive wall movements at the worksite, even though he knew his company had committed to monitor the excavation.
Ong continued by saying Nishimastu Construction design manager Kazuo Shimada made mistakes in the design of the connection of support beams in the excavation that was a cause of the collapse. He added they were not mere errors of judgment, as Nishimatsu’s lawyers suggested and countered that no reasonable engineer in his shoes would have made such errors. Further, Ong said the LTA reviewer’s failure to spot his errors does not exonerate Kazuo.
Nishimatsu Construction project co-ordinator Paul Broome, who held managerial and supervisory roles, allegedly failed to ensure safe construction and safety of workplace.
The case against LTA project director Ng Seng Yoong is that he did not attend any worksite meeting on instrumentation and did not know the readings were missing, despite being required to personally fulfil his duties. He was not justified in relying on LTA staff, as Mr Ng’s lawyers had argued
Nishimatsu was also accused of being dishonest and reckless during the closing submissions. Government lawyer K Shanmugam, on behalf of the LTA, said: ”The cause of the collapse…was the result of major design errors in the temporary works design. These errors were committed by Nishimatsu. They were dishonest and reckless in concealing the design errors.” Tan Chee Meng for LTA’s insurance company Aviva, added that Nishimatsu “continued to advocate to LTA in October 2003 and up to the time of the collapse” a flawed design that contributed to the disaster.
If the five are prosecuted and found guilty individuals could be jailed for up to a year and fined over US$120,000 while Nishimatsu could be fined. Nishimatsu Construction is already set to report an extraordinary charge of up to US$92M as a result of losses caused by the accident.
