A mother's tearful plea to 'give me back my son'

The mother of a 22-year-old assistant engineer who died in yesterday's crane accident broke into tears outside the hospital, saying she wanted her son back.

The assistant engineer surnamed Poon was one of three workers crushed to death when a tower crane collapsed on six container offices in Sau Mau Ping. He had only started working in May, his mother said.

Poon, who had sustained multiple bone fractures, had no pulse and was not breathing when recovered from under the rubble. He was rushed to United Christian Hospital, where he was certified dead.

Poon's mother rushed to UCH when she heard the news about her son. She emerged from the hospital hours later at around 4pm, accompanied by her ex-husband and a female relative, saying as she wept: "I need them to give me back my son. My son is gone, he's only 22, and he had just started working. Give me back my son."

She said she had to break the news of Poon's death to his girlfriend.

Another victim, electrician Hui, 41, was pronounced dead when medics arrived on the scene. Engineer Tsui, 25, was certified dead when he was recovered from under the debris after seven-and-a-half hours.

Other workers at the site said they were lucky the accident happened before lunchtime as they usually change clothes in the container offices before having lunch and resting.

"When I saw the crushed shipping container, I thought: if I was in there, that'd be it for me. I've never seen anything like it before," a worker named Lam said.

He said the containers were used as changing rooms. Lam added: "We were lucky that it didn't happen at lunchtime. Otherwise, there would have been a lot more people in the containers."

He would not dare guess why the crane toppled over, saying: "I don't know why, I don't dare to guess, and I'm not sure. For something so big, we need to be absolutely sure."

A worker named Law said the crane was not carrying any load when the accident happened.

"I heard something go 'bang bang' multiple times - the sound of welded parts breaking apart. And it all came tumbling down," he said. Workers immediately evacuated and did a head count, Law added.

The Housing Society said it will provide a lump sum grant of HK$300,000 to the family of each deceased worker, while the family of each injured worker will be offered HK$100,000 as an immediate assistance.

A spokesman said it is following up on the incident with the main contractor of the project, Aggressive Construction Company Ltd, adding that it will "render full assistance to facilitate the investigation of relevant government departments."

cjames.lee@singtaonewscorp.com