A rigger was tragically killed when he fell from a building while working, at just 23 years old. He had already grabbed hold of the sandbag, but at this moment a fault occurred in the rigging equipment causing the sandbag to drag the worker unloading on the 6th floor directly out of the window! As he fell, he was still shouting to those below to "get out of the way"... At around 10:30 AM on May 14th, a terrible accident occurred in Yongshan neighborhood near Shenliao Road in Tiexi District: a 23-year-old rigger was dragged down to the ground by a sandbag and died instantly.
At around 12:30 PM yesterday, I arrived near Building 13 of Yongshan neighborhood. About two hours earlier, a young man had fallen from the 6th floor of Unit 2 of this building and died on the spot.
In front of the building, there were still about two cubic meters of construction sand and some parts of rigging crane rods piled up. Half a meter away from the sand pile, there was a pool of blood. After the accident, the man had heavily landed in the position where the bloodstain was. "It was too tragic! If he had fallen onto the sand pile, maybe his life could have been saved!" Nearby residents said that when the man's mother arrived at the scene, her son had already passed away. The mother collapsed over her son's body, crying her heart out, which moved everyone who heard it.
"He was so young, I heard he was born in 1988, only 23 years old and now he's gone. What a pity, we all feel heartbroken..." An elderly woman emotionally said that the deceased had come from Jilin Province to work in Shenyang. To suffer such a disaster at such a young age, his family would surely find it hard to accept this fact.
Around the sand pile, there were also more than ten large woven bags filled with sand stacked up. A man who had worked as a mover weighed one of the sandbags and guessed that each bag should weigh over 60 kilograms. On the sand pile, there was an iron hook tied to a triangular iron frame, and the iron hook was bound together with five sandbags using steel wire rope. Eyewitnesses said that the deceased was precisely dragged down to the ground by these five sandbags. "So heavy, there was really no way to save him."
As he fell, he didn't forget to warn those below to "all get out of the way."
Residents said that before the accident happened, the deceased was operating the motor upstairs and unloading sand. There were also two workers downstairs responsible for loading sand and securing the sandbags. No one would have thought that this rigging operation would become the fatal experience for the young man...
"At the time, six bags were lifted altogether, possibly this young man had unloaded one bag upstairs. Just as he was leaning out to unload the second bag, the pulley fixed between the crane rod and the window frame couldn't bear the weight and fell off immediately! This person was holding onto sand weighing over 100 jin (about 50 kg), how could he not be dragged down?" The eyewitnesses lamented that if the man hadn't held onto the sandbag, such a tragedy might not have happened.
What made people even more heartbroken was that someone heard this young man shout "all get out of the way" at the time of the accident. "Knowing clearly that he wouldn't survive, he still warned those below not to be hit by the falling sandbags, what a righteous boy!" The words of the eyewitnesses drew praise and sighs from the onlookers nearby!
A man who claimed to have done rigging work before said that with sandbags this heavy, a maximum of three bags should be lifted at once. Lifting six bags at once obviously created a hidden danger leading to the accident.
After the 120 ambulance confirmed the man's death at the scene, the body was taken away by the 96144 funeral vehicle.
Lawyer: Worker's Death Should Be the Employer's Responsibility
I went to the household on the 6th floor where the accident occurred, but the door was locked and there was no one inside. Through the small window on the door, I could see that there was no furniture inside, and it was in the initial stages of renovation.
The residents said that the homeowner had just bought the house and was busy renovating it recently. It was rumored that the homeowner had entrusted the entire renovation project to a construction team. When the workers were rigging and transporting sand, the homeowner was not present at the scene.
The cost of this unexpected incident was a young life, so who should bear the responsibility? I consulted lawyer Li Zhenge from Liaoning Liangyou Law Firm regarding this matter. He stated that construction teams like this are usually temporarily employed by employers, forming an employment relationship. During the course of employment activities, if the worker suffers personal harm, the employer should bear corresponding civil liability. The homeowner buying sand for renovation has a purchase contract relationship with the sand seller, but is not the employer of the deceased worker. Therefore, the homeowner should not bear the responsibility.
Reported and photographed by Liu Zhao of our newspaper.