One Killed, One Missing, Three Wounded as Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge Platform Crashes Into Sea

(Yicai Global) March 30 — A construction platform on the Hong Kong section of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macau Bridge crashed into the ocean yesterday, causing five workers to fall and resulting in one death, three injuries and one worker going missing.

The platform was around 2.4-meters by 4-meters and hung three meters above sea-level from two ropes. When the accident happened, three foreign men were working. At 3.25 p.m. yesterday, the canvas rope that hung the workbench snapped, causing the platform to fall into the sea and immediately sink. The snapped rope hit two workers in the feet and chest, several Hong Kong media reports said.

The bridge, the longest cross-sea bridge in the world, is almost 50 kilometers long and connects Hong Kong’s Lantau Island, the Macau Peninsula and Zhuhai city in China’s southern province of Guangdong. Construction began in December 2009 and the main section was completed on Sept. 27 last year, it is due to come into service by the end of the year.

Hong Kong’s Labor Department is investigating the cause, according to the government website.

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