BAM director speaks out on site electric shock accident

Dar es Salaam. BAM International has come out denying that it violated occupational safety precautions at its construction site on Terminal 3 at Julius Nyerere International Airport.

An accident occurred on September 7 causing serious injuries to a driver, but BAM said it was handled according to occupational safety regulations, a statement sent to The Citizen by Eric van Zuthem, who is BAM director Area Africa, said.

“Immediately following the accident senior staff, all with first aid training, were on the scene and Mr [Habib Halidi] Mallya, the victim of the incident, was taken to hospital as soon as possible by the most available vehicle and accompanied by BAM personnel,” said Van Zuthem.

He said the incident was being investigated by both Occupational Safety and Health Authority (Osha) and BAM and that further details would not be released until investigation was completed.

“BAM has accumulated over 10 million man hours on this project, over eight million of them before the first accident occurred and this is only the second. This is a great achievement for BAM and Tanzania as well, which should not be disregarded,” van Zuthem said in the statement.

Van Zuthem denies accusations filed by anonymous sources that workers had been complaining about loose live cables.

“Hundreds of thousands of hours have been spent on training our workers and a visitor to the site can clearly see the emphasis and focus on safety,” he noted, adding that BAM looked forward to improving operations to avoid a similar accident.

“We work closely with the authorities and affected parties such as Tamico to minimise the risk of accidents and consider this an enviable record,” the statement further reads in part.

On September 7, a truck driver was seriously injured after he suffered an electric shock at the Terminal 3 construction site.

A video clip of the incident captured by one of the workers of BAM shows Mr Mallya agonising in pain being carried away by colleagues to a double cabin pickup stationed near the scene of the accident.

But according to Mr Zuthem the incident was a source of great regret to the BAM management and project team.

“(At BAM) safety is not just a priority, but the highest of our core values,” he said.

Mr Mallya, who is still in hospital, is a driver for an external supplier of sand, according to van Zuthem.

Osha has said it has already launched investigation on the BAM site accident.