SOURCE: The Straits Times

A METAL gate weighing 900kg fell on a security officer on his first day of work at the MRT’s North East Line depot in Sengkang last year, killing him.

A coroner’s court heard yesterday that Mr Ong Yue Hing, 55, was helping to close the gate at the depot on Anchorvale Lane on March 15 last year when the gate fell on him.

At the inquest into his death, the court heard that he had just started the night shift with his colleague Hardi Asmoneh.

Mr Hardi then proceeded to shut the gate.

He manually pushed the gate on the right towards the one on the left, with Mr Ong helping him as it was heavy.

The left-side gate was normally closed, but earlier that day, it was opened to let a trailer through and had not been closed fully, Mr Hardi told investigators.

Once the right-side gate was almost shut, Mr Ong volunteered to give it that final heave. He went outside the depot and the pushing continued.

Suddenly, the gate wobbled and collapsed outwards, pinning Mr Ong under it.

Mr Hardi tried lifting it, but it was too heavy.

He enlisted the help of about 15 men, who managed to free Mr Ong.

The injured man was conscious and could give a coherent account of what had happened. But he died four hours later from multiple injuries at Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

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