Humans Aren't Cargo

Straits Times,  Published on Jul 5, 2012 Friends and colleagues of Mr Kathiravan, 19, at the morgue. The Indian national's body was collected yesterday. -- ST PHOTO: JOYCE FANG THE body of the 19-year-old worker who died in a lorry accident on Tuesday will be flown back to India for the funeral. The body of the man known as Mr Kathiravan, who worked for Beng Khim Construction, was collected at the mortuary yesterday. He was flung out after the lorry, which was carrying 26 workers including the driver, collided with another lorry that reportedly swerved into its path on Tanah Merah Coast Road. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Out of his 15 colleagues who were warded at the Changi General Hospital on Tuesday, 13 are still there, with five in the intensive care unit. One victim, Mr Ramu Alagarsamy, 37, said his last memory was of falling asleep before the accident. When he woke up, he was already in hospital, said the man, who has b...

Straits Times,  Published on Jul 4, 2012 By JALELAH ABU BAKER The early-morning crash in Tanah Merah Coast Road led to 19 people in total being hospitalised. -- PHOTO: SINGAPORE CIVIL DEFENCE FORCE A TEENAGE Indian worker was killed and 18 others injured after the lorry they were in was involved in a head-on collision with another lorry yesterday. Mr Kathiravan, 19, died after being flung out, along with three others who sat in the back of the vehicle with him. He had been working here for five months. The accident, in Tanah Merah Coast Road, comes after rules were introduced last year requiring lorries ferrying workers to be fitted with canopies and higher side railings. Such fittings were made compulsory after two accidents in 2010 that killed three workers and injured 54 people. A safety supervisor from Mr Kathiravan's company, Beng Khim Construction, said the lorry was fitted  with the safety features. But the impact of the crash co...