A man who fell from a Ħandaq construction site on Saturday afternoon remains in critical condition and has yet to be formally identified.
The man was carrying out finishing works on a warehouse under construction when he fell from a height of six metres, sustaining critical injuries.
Two days later, his condition remains unchanged, with a police spokesperson telling Times of Malta that his condition remains critical.
The man is believed to be a foreign national but has not yet been identified.
He was carrying out finishing works on the warehouse when he fell from scaffolding on the site.
A spokesperson for OHSA told Times of Malta that it has launched an investigation into the incident, with “more detailed investigations into the scaffolding” underway.
Times of Malta is informed that the man was employed by a local contractor.
This incident is just the latest in a long line of construction-related accidents and fatalities. By the beginning of 2023, there were 87 pending inquiries into workplace deaths and injuries, dating back to 2015.
The first few months of 2024 brought about other tragic incidents, including the death of Bari Balla, a father of six, who died crushed under the rubble of a collapsed roof of a Sliema townhouse.
This latest incident comes just a fortnight after another man, also a foreign national, died after being electrocuted while assembling scaffolding in St Julian’s.
A new bill in the pipeline
In response to the spate of construction-related accidents, the government has pledged to introduce harsher deterrents through a new bill, the Health and Safety at Work Act, presented to parliament earlier this month.
The opposition has described the bill as “half-baked”, saying that it includes several compromises that may render it toothless.
Other measures introduced in recent months, ostensibly to reduce construction accidents, have also come under fire.
A new Construction Directorate introduced in the aftermath of Balla’s death turned out to be just a civil service department “that would guarantee continuity” whenever a minister changes, according to Kamra tal-Periti.