A man was killed at the construction site of Phase III of Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals Limited here in Jokatte on Thursday after a portion of a crane got detached and fell on him.
According to the police, the deceased Johnson Santhosh Rosario (21) was Site Safety Officer employed by Punj Lloyd, a firm carrying out construction work at the site.
Prasanna, a welder, who was present at the site when the incident occurred around 9.30 a.m., said the crane part called “boom” suddenly fell when the operator switched on the machine. Johnson was walking under it and a lorry was parked nearby. The boom fell on the lorry before hitting Johnson on the chest, Mr. Prasanna said.
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Workers at the construction site told The Hindu that they could pull him out from under the boom and had to wait for more than half an hour for the ambulance to arrive. The ambulance could not reach the site because of the slush, they said. Finally, they managed to take him to the hospital in another car.
It is said that “for some reason” that morning, there weren't too many workers on the site.
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Compensation
Akhila Bharat Karmika Sangha city secretary Raj Kulal said the Mr. Rosario's family be given compensation.
Accidents on site
Workers alleged that three persons died in accidents on the site so far, but sources in MRPL confirmed that one death had occurred at the worksite prior to this.
The workers halted construction at the site of the accident for a few hours after the incident. The area was deserted.
Things took a heated turn when two security officers arrived at the scene and the handful of workers vented their anger against them.
MRPL Director (Technical) P.P. Upadhyaya said he “did not actually know how it happened” but said that Mr. Rosario was not a direct employee of MRPL. He said the construction work at the Phase III site was contracted to Engineers India Limited, which had contracted the work to Punj Lloyd.