Heavy pieces of stone dislodge from building facade and rain down on pedestrian near Dickson Rd

A pedestrian appears to have been badly injured after heavy pieces of stone allegedly dislodged from the facade of a building and rained down on him just past midnight, last night.

According to an eyewitness, Facebook user Lee Hwa, the incident occurred at a building near Dickson Road at 12.05am today. Referring to a decorative panel of stones affixed to the building facade, Lee Hwa reported that “the whole row of walls stone fell down and smashed” into the pedestrian.

Videos shared by Lee shows an injured pedestrian clinging on to a rail for support before other passersby rushing to his aid and getting him to lay on his back on the ground. The injured man clearly looks to be in pain as the passersby urge him to relax and stay calm while help arrives.

When some of the men who rushed to the injured pedestrian’s aid try to straighten his leg and massage his legs to soothe him, others rightly warn them against doing so in case the pedestrian’s injuries worsen.

Lee Hwa’s videos show the ground littered with large chunks of stone that appear to have been dislodged from a panel of stones just above where the injured man was left clinging to the rail. Passersby can also be seen looking up at the troubling stone work on the building facade, in one video.

The two other videos show emergency services personnel tending to the injured man before lifting him onto a stretcher, to be conveyed to a hospital:

This is not the first incident of pieces falling off local buildings.

In September 2016, a concrete slab dislodged from Block 201E at Tampines while a cladding panel broke off Block 51, Circuit Road less than a month later. A month after that, a slab of plaster dropped 12 storeys down a HDB block in Hougang.

Then in April 2017, two aluminium panels fell off an HDB block at Indus Road. In June this year, a piece of cladding fell off Block 270 in Pasir Ris town with a sound similar to a “very loud cluster of thunder,” according to a resident.

Mere days after the Pasir Ris incident, a piece of decorative panel fell 40 storeys from a HDB block at Bendemeer Road and landed with a “loud crash” beside a playground in June, causing concern over the structural safety of local buildings – particularly, HDB blocks.

https://theindependent.sg.sg/panel-that-fell-40-storeys-from-hdb-block-is-one-of-several-incidents-of-pieces-falling-off-flats-and-endangering-the-public/