An abandoned rock-crushing tower in a Sau Mau Ping quarry site collapsed while being dismantled yesterday, killing one worker and injuring two others.
The accident at the Anderson Road site happened at about 1.30pm when a crane was lifting a silo storage bin at the tower, which is made up of a steel frame. The bin was originally used to hold rocks for crushing. As it was lifted, the tower collapsed.
'The contractor was dismantling a five-metre-high unused rock-crushing tower within the quarry site. The tower collapsed during the process,' a Civil Engineering and Development Department spokeswoman said.
A 60-year-old man who was working under the tower suffered serious injuries. He died at about 6pm at United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong.
The other two workers, aged 50 and 51, sustained injuries to their limbs and were in stable condition last night. They were standing on the structure at the time of the accident.
Firefighters used life detectors to check whether any worker was buried under the collapsed equipment.
Police Inspector Alan Tuan Ngar-lun of the Sau Mau Ping division said the rock-crushing tower had been inactive for years and that the workers were doing clearance work.
