Many Feared Dead After Construction Site Collapse in E. Kalimantan

Jakarta Globe Jun 03, 2014


Jakarta. Tens of workers were unaccounted for on Tuesday morning after a three-story shophouse collapsed in the early hours, burying many and severely injuring others.

“We’ve evacuated around 80 people,” Samarinda District Police spokesman Agus Setyo said, as quoted by the state-run news agency Antara.

Indonesian media reported there were 129 people working overtime through the night on the third floor of the complex in the East Kalimantan capital, Samarinda —a city of almost a million people.

One survivor told the state-run agency that workers finished work at around 5 a.m. and were asleep at 6:25 a.m. when the building collapsed.

“Last night we did overtime on the third floor of the building,” , “said Supardi, 40, from, Kediriri, East Java. ”

Supardi said the workers were asleep on the ground floor. “I heard a crack, then I ran and saw the building had collapsed,” he said.

Industrial accidents are commonplace in Indonesia — the government’s official data show as many as nine people die every day in the workplace. Last year, Indonesia recorded one of its worst mining disasters when a tunnel collapsed in the Freeport-operated Grasberg mine in Papua, killing 28 miners.



*

The Jakarta Globe, Jun 05, 2014




Jakarta. Police questioned 12 witnesses on Thursday in connection to the collapse of a three-story shophouse, still under construction, in Samarinda, East Kalimantan.

As of Thursday evening, the death toll had climbed to eight and four remained missing.

Samarinda Police chief Sr. Comr. Antonius Wisnu Sutirta said on Thursday that police would also move to summon the owner of the shophouse and the site’s contractor, in addition to the Samarinda licensing agency responsible for issuing the project permit.

Antonius said that the witness had not been named suspects but did not rule out the possibility that they would be after more evidence had been gathered.

“We will apply the presumption of innocence while conducting our investigation… but we will also double-check their testimony with the results of lab tests and experts’ explanations,” he said.

According to Antonius, those found responsible for the incident could face up to five years imprisonment for negligence leading to the loss of life.

“Rescue work is still our priority and we are still trying to find more missing victims,” he said earlier on Thursday.

The shophouse collapsed at 6:25 a.m. on Tuesday when most of the 129 workers were asleep after working through the night on the third floor of the complex.




*