An Indonesian migrant worker was found dead early this morning after the scaffolding for a National Taiwan University (NTU) Hospital renovation project collapsed yesterday and trapped him in the debris, the Taipei City Government said.
The Indonesian national was working on the scaffolding in front of NTU hospital's East Campus when it collapsed and landed on a car yesterday morning.
Photo copied by Liu Ching-hou, Taipei Times
No casualties were initially reported, but a 49-year-old Indonesian male migrant worker was later said to be missing and possibly trapped at the scene.
After an overnight search, the man was found dead early this morning, trapped in the collapsed scaffolding, the city government said.
City officials said rescue workers were unable initially to get into the pile of debris to search for victims because of the sheer volume of materials that had fallen, and instead had to wait for the construction unit to remove the pile of scaffolding manually.
The removal operation continued until nearly 3am when the migrant worker was found dead on the third floor of the scaffolding, where he was trapped and crushed by debris, the city government said.
The Taipei Labor Inspection Office said the accident was likely caused by the construction company piling construction materials on the scaffolding and exceeding its weight load limit.
The office said it would look into whether the worker's employer and relevant on-site personnel should be held criminally liable for breaching the Occupational Safety and Health Act (職業安全衛生法).
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