Scaffolding crash victim was set for vacation

The 26-year-old Bangladeshi carpenter, a victim of a scaffolding collapse at a construction site in Al Qusais on Saturday, was preparing to go home for his first vacation.

Shamim Hussain, carpenter with a labour supply subcontracting company for the main contractor of the eight-storey building under construction, died on the spot, 45 minutes after he started work for the day.

“We all started from Saja at 6am and reached the building site at 7am,” said Abdul Raheem, from the sub-contracting company that employs them. “Twenty workers from the company were working in different parts of the same building and Shamim was getting ready to cut a wooden log, when suddenly he saw a piece of wood that fell on the ground,” he said.

All of a sudden, more pipes and wooden logs started falling. These were part of the scaffoldings that had been installed to carry out exterior plastering work on the building. There was no external injury or blood. His colleagues were shocked to know that Shamim died in the accident.

“We haven’t seen the post mortem report yet. We are waiting for the report to know how he died,” he added. Two of the four injured have been reportedly released from Al Rashid Hospital in Dubai, where they were undergoing treatment.

Meanwhile, work at the construction site has resumed.

The deceased is survived by an elder brother who works in Sharjah, and three sisters, two of them are married. His colleagues said that Shamim was saving money for his younger sister’s wedding. His family was expecting him next month, said a friend, saddened by the Bangladeshi's accidental death.

Eyewitnesses said that one of the workers standing on the scaffolding was moving a long iron pipe, and did not notice that the temporary lift carrying men and material was coming up. The iron pipe got hooked to the lift, shaking the scaffolding. According to reports quoting Dubai Police, the temporary lift carrying iron pieces, too, fell down, causing the accident.

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