A Bangladeshi construction worker paralysed after a worksite accident was awarded about $600,000 in damages and costs by the High Court yesterday.

Mr Tarun Kumar Saha Manoj Kumar Saha, 32, suffered spinal injuries after he was knocked down from behind by a reversing forklift on Feb 3, 2013.

Deployed to do general renovation works at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, he was dealing with the driver of a crane, which was running, so he could not hear the vehicle reversing towards him.

Thrown a metre by the impact, he was taken to Tan Tock Seng Hospital, where he had surgery to stabilise his fractured spine and right ankle.

Mr Tarun also received psychiatric treatment at the hospital, underwent rehabilitation and and was discharged into a private nursing home some two months later.

Through his lawyer, Mr Pritam Singh Gill, he sued his employer, sub- contractor Choon Construction, and the main site contractor, Hup Yew Sen Construction, for negligence.

The defendants, whose lawyers were from United Legal Alliance, at first argued that Mr Tarun was partly, if not wholly, to blame. But in October last year, both contractors accepted 85 per cent liability, leaving the sums payable to be assessed.

After a two-day assessment hearing, which ended yesterday, Judicial Commissioner Valerie Thean ordered that Mr Tarun be paid $323,700 for pain, suffering and loss of future earnings and $225,721 to meet medical expenses, contingencies and costs of appliances and materials for continued care.

The judge awarded another $50,000 in legal costs.

For Mr Tarun, the compensation was small comfort.

“Got money, but cannot do anything,” he told The Straits Times.

He came to Singapore in 2010, and moved up from construction worker to become an assistant to the site supervisor.

He was an active sportsman, and had plans to marry, but his fiancee left him when he became disabled.

Mr Tarun said when doctors first told him he was permanently paralysed, he was devastated. He thought of suicide.

An only son and sole breadwinner, he now lives with his parents, aged 75 and 70, in their village home some 300km from Dhaka.

He said: “My parents became depressed when they saw me in a wheelchair. I was still depressed but kept it to myself. I pretended to give them confidence as I knew if I showed them that I was sad, they could go into deep depression and become sick.”

He needs a male nurse, who goes to the house daily to attend to him.

He left for Dhaka last night. “My village is not like Singapore. Not much a handicap can do or go to.”

This article was first published on Jun 18, 2016.
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Most parents are aware of the rules governing the use of car seats for children and always belt up their children when on the move.

A Straits Times street poll of 50 parents on Wednesday found that nearly 75 per cent of parents ensure that their children are secured in car seats, as required by law.

On Tuesday morning, a Honda sedan skidded and crashed into a tree in Lentor Avenue, killing a woman and injuring her husband and two children.

Ms Sim Yee Ling, 33, who was seated in the back with her elder son Tan Yu Sen, six, was pronounced dead at the scene. The boy suffered spinal injuries. Her younger son, Wei Quan, three, sustained head injuries, while her husband Simon Tan, 42, who was driving, suffered a brain haemorrhage.

It remains unclear if they were wearing seat belts.

Drivers and passengers in motor vehicles are required by law to wear seat belts, unless medically exempted. The law also requires passengers under 1.35m to be secured with an appropriate child restraint or use a booster seat or adjustable seat belt, barring some exceptions.

In recent years, the number of drivers who failed to wear seat belts fell from 9,757 in 2013 to 7,375 last year, Traffic Police data shows.

Civil servant Vincent Teo, 34, who has a three-year-old son, said the recent accident “shows that you can never be too careful”.

He added: “My child sits in a booster in the back of the car with his seat belt fastened at all times. We’re very aware of safety while driving.”

However, some parents flout the rules as they find child car seats inconvenient, or rely on their driving skills for safety. Software developer Pang Gin Dee, 33, said: “We used to have a baby seat… but now, since my kid is four years old, we don’t use a booster seat; just seat belts.

“Boosters are too bulky and we need to fit other things, like prams, in the car. Accidents and injuries still can happen… I think it’s how you drive that matters most.”

Ms Linda Chia, 32, who works in software support and has a son in pre-school, also finds booster seats inconvenient. She said her son uses a booster seat, but not for short drives, or when the car is full.

“I know it’s not that safe. I’ll always try to hold on to him, just in case the car stops abruptly,” she said.

Under the Road Traffic Act, drivers and passengers found not using a seat belt or appropriate restraints can be fined up to $1,000 or jailed up to three months, or both.

Mr Bernard Tay, president of the Automobile Association of Singapore, said: “A properly fitted child restraint system can reduce fatal injuries by up to 80 per cent for toddlers and 90 per cent for infants.”

A car’s passive safety elements, such as the body shell, airbags, seat belts and headrests are not designed specifically for protecting children, and will not protect them properly during an accident, he added.

Click on thumbnail to view photos. Source: 

Lianhe Wanbao, Shin Min Daily News

feliciac@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Jun 18, 2016.
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Four in 10 maids have to share their rooms, a survey by a migrant worker advocacy group has found, with a “surprising” number having to bunk in with men. And this is a situation that could leave them vulnerable.

While interviewing maids for a report on their living conditions, Transient Workers Count Too (TWC2) found that about 40 per cent of them share a room.

The findings were based on responses from 429 maids. Of the 171 who shared rooms, 11 did so with males aged 12 to 19, and another 11 shared a room with an adult male.

TWC2 executive committee member and past president John Gee said the findings were surprising.

The group released advance results from the survey to The Straits Times on Thursday.

The results are drawn from interviews with 472 maids, conducted from June 2014 to last month, and will form a longer report that will be published later.

TWC2 treasurer Alex Au said maids could be sharing a room with male family members who are elderly or have disabilities, but “she should have a right to a place of her own”.

He added: “If she is sharing a room with a male who is bigger and stronger than her, that makes her highly vulnerable.”A Manpower Ministry spokesman, in response to queries, said maids should not be made to sleep in the same room as a man or male teenager to protect their modesty.

Employers who contravene this regulation can be fined up to $10,000 or face a jail term of up to a year or both. However, exceptions may be made if the adult male is elderly and disabled, and requires care, and the maid agrees to the arrangement.

The Humanitarian Organisation for Migration Economics (Home) released a report last year, which found that about a quarter of the 670 maids surveyed shared a room.

In the past six months, the group said it has encountered at least four cases in which maids said they shared a room with a man.

Home executive director Jolovan Wham recounted a case in which a maid shared a bedroom and toilet with her employer’s 18-year-old son.

She said she felt uncomfortable because she suspected he was behaving lewdly in the same room.

The Centre for Domestic Employees, which is run by the National Trades Union Congress, said it has not encountered such issues.

But its executive director of strategy, Mr Shamsul Kamar, said: “We would like to reiterate that it is the responsibility of the employers to provide acceptable accommodation that respects the privacy and modesty of foreign domestic workers.”

Maid agents agreed. Mr Karl Tan, 77, owner of Inter-Mares Management Services, said: “It is terribly unacceptable for a maid to share a room with a male, unless he is physically handicapped.”

A 40-year-old Indonesian maid, who declined to be named, told The Straits Times that she shares a room with her employer’s 23-year-old son, who has intellectual disability.

The man cannot speak clearly and she once woke up to find him feverish and in need of a doctor.

“He is unable to tell us that he’s in pain,” she said. “If I am in the same room, I can keep an eye on him and alert his parents.”

The maid added that she does not feel uncomfortable sharing a room with him. She has been working for the family of six, and living with them in their four-bedroom condominium unit, for about 16 years.

She said: “I’ve seen the boy grow up. I treat him the way I treat my own children.”

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oliviaho@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on June 18, 2016.
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