Embrace safety culture to prevent mishaps
The Star Online, 16 October 2014
TAN SRI LEE LAM THYE (Chairman National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health)
THE latest incident in Johor where an oversized billboard on the 40m-long metal roof of a pedestrian bridge at the Perling-Pasir Gudang Highway was ripped off by strong winds and resulted in damaging a lorry, two cars and a motorcycle on the road warrants the attention of the authorities.
It should be a wake-up call to all local authorities throughout the country to act urgently in assessing and monitoring existing pedestrian bridges as well as overhead bridges with similar billboards in their respective areas.
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) construction research centre director Prof Dr Mahmood Md Tahir said faulty design and strong winds could have caused the incident.
He added that the billboard was not only too large but was also not built according to specifications. These revelations are far too serious to be ignored.
Let the Johor Baru incident be a lesson to all local authorities that when giving approval for billboards to be built on top of pedestrian bridges, steps must be taken to ensure they are certified safe by professionals.
Similar measures should cover billboards mounted on to buildings.
With regards to the roofing and other structures on pedestrian bridges, they must also be inspected regularly to ensure the structures are safe.
Regular maintenance of all installations such as railing and lighting on all pedestrian bridges must be carried out in the interest of public safety.
Granted that strong winds and inclement weather are factors to be considered, we must never be in the habit of blaming Mother Nature each time an unexpected incident or tragedy occurs.
We need to look at ourselves, our professional duties, the way we do things and whether we are discharging our responsibilities in accordance with professional ethics and integrity.
We must embrace a prevention culture that aims to prevent something untoward from happening rather than allowing it to happen through our own negligence and then revealing what has gone wrong.
