Singapore—In June of last year, a Singaporean male fell to his death into a hole at the 1-Altitude’s rooftop bar at One Raffles Place. An investigation from the coroner has found that workers who had been assigned to clean at the building had left the 4-meter deep hole uncovered, which inadvertently led to the man’s death.

The casualty is a man named Shaun Tung Mun Hon and he worked as a part-time security officer in the building.

State Coroner Kamala Ponnampalam was told by an officer from the Ministry of Manpower (MOM) on Wednesday (Aug 5) that the workers whose job it was to move the concrete slab to cover the hole had found the daily task to be “quite troublesome”.

On June 9, 2019, the day when Mr Tung fell into the hole, the 80kg concrete slab had been moved over its opening. Guests were not allowed to enter the area near where the hole was. The area was unlit when the incident occurred. The pit was surrounded by warning signs and barriers to prevent accidents, but, according to the officer from the MOM, these were “not effective” measures.

The MOM is said to be considering taking legal action against the parties involved in the incident, as further investigations are yet ongoing.

Mr Tung, age 26 and the father of a young boy, had been briefed about the pit before his shift began on the day of the incident. But when two unnamed male guests came close to the barricaded area, he ran to them, shining his flashlight toward them to give them a warning. Unfortunately, he fell into the pit.

When his colleagues came over to help him, they discovered he was lying face down at the bottom of the pit and was pronounced dead due to a head injury when his body was autopsied.

According to MOM at the time of the incident, Mr Tung “fell into a 4m-deep pit in an area cordoned off for exterior building cleaning works,” and was pronounced dead by Paramedics from the Singapore Civil Defence Force at the scene.

The bar is touted as the highest alfresco bar in the world since it is located 282 meters above sea level. In the aftermath of the incident, 1-Altitude put up a post on its Facebook page that said, “To ensure the safety of our guests, 1-Altitude’s Rooftop Bar will temporarily be closed due to some rectification works – Our indoor club Altimate will be open to the public.”

Netizens have expressed their dismay that the negligence of the workers in covering up the hole led to Mr Tung’s death.

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