THREE CONSTRUCTION site workers fell 10 metres when a platform on which they were working collapsed on Tuesday, May 22. The accident happened on works progressing on a viaduct that will enlarge the Lisbon north-south bypass.
The accident occurred in Rua Professor Manuel Valadares at 10.25am at a scaffolding site erected by Estradas de Portugal (EP), the company responsible for the works.
Two of the workers, a Ukrainian (29) and a Portuguese (33), were taken to Santa Maria Hospital with significant injuries to the spine, while the other, a Romanian (49) was taken to Lisbon’s São José Hospital with various fractures.
“For reasons that are still to be determined, the platform they were on collapsed and despite the workers being given security harnesses, none of them had them firmly attached to an anchor point at the time,” said a spokesperson for EP.
The Inspecção Geral de Trabalho (IGT), Inspectorate-General for Work, is to open an investigation into the causes of the accident.
Last year, 157 civil construction workers died in accidents on construction sites in Portugal.
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