Developers responsible for fatal accidents: Experts
Zakki Hakim, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
Experts are blaming indiscipline and inadequate safety measures for two separate accidents that killed four workers and injured nine at a construction site in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, on Thursday.
The two accidents occurred at the construction site of the Gading Mediterania apartments.
"Two fatal accidents in one day could only be due to negligence and inadequate safety measures at the site," Syukri Sahab, chairman of the Indonesian Occupational Safety and Health Institute, told The Jakarta Post on Friday.
He said all accidents were avoidable because every job had a standard operational procedure and therefore the developer should have trained its workers accordingly.
Workers in the city mostly come from rural areas and the most building experience they would have is in building two-story houses and would therefore know nothing about the safety measures for working on a 14-story building like the Gading Mediterania, he said.
"It is the developer who should be held most responsible for such accidents," he said.
Marbun, an official at the LK3I private advisory institute that the government employs, said that according to Law No. 1/1970, the case should be immediately investigated by the manpower and transmigration ministry and the city administration.
Furthermore, the case should be publicly disclosed so that other building developers learn from the accidents and prevent a recurrence of the tragedy, he said.
However, the accident site was closed to journalists on Friday, and officials on the site refused to comment on the incidents.
On Friday morning, hundreds of workers gathered at the construction site for a selamatan mass prayer in the hope of warding off further accidents at the site.
After prayers, some workers performed only minor activities, but most demanded a day off.
Two workers at PT Wijaya Karya (Wika) -- Sunaryo, 30, and Dedi, 27 -- lost their lives and nine others were injured on Thursday after a concrete wall collapsed, setting off a domino effect that caused 11 walls to topple and fall on at least 11 laborers working between them.
Co-workers immediately took the victims to the Islamic Hospital in Cempaka Putih, Central Jakarta. Four of the injured were allowed to go home the same day, while five others are still in the hospital.
Of the four who were killed, two lost their lives when the walls collapsed, while two others, Heri, 21, and Fauzan, 21, fell to their deaths from the second floor after receiving electric shocks.
Sarwa, the father of Junaedi -- one of the workers who was injured and suffered a broken leg -- said that PT Wika would take care of the hospital costs. However, there is no written agreement and no information on whether the developer will compensate all of the victims.