43-year-old Thin Soon Fatt was killed in June last year while repairing a bus at the SMRT bus depot at Ang Mo Kio after one of the jacks used to lift the bus gave way while he was under the vehicle.
He was sent to the hospital where he eventually succumbed to his head injuries.
At the coroner’s hearing on 23 June, the coroner’s court heard that he had used unapproved jacks to lift the bus and did not adhere to standard operating procedures at the time of the accident.
Police investigating officer Li Sin Rong told Adam Nakhoda, the state coroner, that Thin was working for Strides Automotive Services, which is a subsidiary of SMRT.
Investigations revealed that the jacks that Thin used during the accident were not issued by Strides, and that Thin had brought them to the accident site.
Ng Chee Hwee, from MOM’s Occupational Safety and Health Division, also testified that there was no reason for the jacks to be there as they were not part of the standard equipment.
He said that Thin and two other workers were deployed to repair the new BYD electric bus that had a loose steering wheel on 6 June 2021.
The bus weighed 7.5 tonnes, with the front portion of the vehicle alone weighing close to 3 tonnes.
The jacks that Thin brought in could only support a total of about 2 tonnes, and after the repair was done, Thin was under the bus and could have lowered 1 of the two jacks, resulting in the other jack bearing more weight and becoming overloaded.
It then gave way and Thin was then struck by the chassis of the vehicle.
The court was told that the men should’ve used an air-assisted hydraulic jack to lift the bus and placed vehicle stands under the bus to support it.
Ng also testified that investigations revealed that Thin’s colleagues wanted to use proper jack and vehicle stands but was dissuaded by Thin, who was the supervisor.