Thai Construction Giant Rocked by Repeated Fatal Accidents

One of Thailand’s biggest construction companies has been rocked by repeated fatal tragedies that have created a cloud over the company’s future.

The Transport Ministry on Friday ordered a 15-day halt to work on 14 projects involving Italian-Thai Development (ITD), as well as other large-scale projects overseen by the minstry.

Officials said they will conduct safety inspections following two serious accidents on consecutive days this week. The first involved the collapse of a crane that fell on a train in the northeast, killing 32 passengers on Wednesday, while two drivers died the very next day when another crane crushed their vehicles on Rama 2 Road in Bangkok.

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The publicly-listed firm has said it will compensate the victims of these accidents, which include more than 60 people who were injured in the train crash in Sikhio district in Nakhon Ratchasima province.

Chirapong Theppithuck, deputy permanent secretary of the Transport Ministry, said the halt to Italian-Thai’s projects would allow expert teams to conduct detailed inspections to ensure safety standards were being met.

He also ordered other major construction projects commissioned by the Transport Ministry to halt construction for up to 15 days for similar inspections, according to a statement.

The results would be reported to the ministry and legal and regulatory action would be taken if required, it said.

This week’s crane collapses were the latest in a series of fatal accidents at construction projects in Thailand, several involving Italian-Thai, including the collapse of a partially-built Bangkok tower last year following a 7.7-magnitude earthquake in neighbouring Myanmar, which killed at least 89 and led to charges of negligence against 23 people.

PM says builder must be blacklisted

On Thursday, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul ordered Transport officials to cancel contracts with ITD because of the two crane collapse tragedies.

Anutin spoke after a meeting to discuss construction safety, saying the accidents, which killed nearly three dozen people, had shocked the public.

He instructed officials to pursue legal action and to blacklist the construction contractor, based on advice from the Council of State and the Office of the Attorney General, the Bangkok Post said.

Thailand, Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy, is in the middle of a massive infrastructure boom, building highways and high-speed rail lines across the country and expanding its elevated rail network in Bangkok.

However, there has been concern and debate about the government policy to allow construction work to continue above busy highways and rail lines still regularly used by trains.