SINGAPORE – Police do not suspect foul play after an ill-fated attempt to move nearly 900kg of machinery at a gunnery site led to the death of a 31-year-old Singaporean man in 2022.

During a Nov. 5 medical examiner’s inquest into Mr. Ely Chow’s death at work, police said Mr Chow and his colleagues were tasked with moving a crimping machine from one area of ​​the construction site to another.

Staff Sergeant (SSS) Ng Tyan Soon testified that the group was tasked with moving the car using a forklift inside the site, which was handled by ST Engineering Advanced Material Engineering.

A crimping machine is generally used to attach metal fittings to hose ends by crimping them.

SSS Ng, the investigating officer in Mr Chow’s case, said that before lifting the car with the forklift, the forklift operator asked Mr Chow to make sure there were no obstacles as his view was blocked.

The court heard the car was enclosed in a box structure.

On December 27, 2022, at around 7:45 a.m., Mr. Chow went to check the area. After the “clear” signal was given, the forklift driver inserted the forks into the box holding the machine.

Mr Edmund Ng, a senior investigation officer at the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), testified that the forklift’s forks can move sideways as well as tilt at an angle.

Tilting at an angle is usually done to ensure that the center of gravity of the load is close to the forklift for stability.

MOM’s Mr Ng said CCTV footage showed the forklift driver inserted the forks into the box and lifted it before tilting the forks.

He said he noticed from the footage that the forks were not fully inserted when the load was tilted.

At this point, the box holding the 900kg crimping machine, which is described as “top heavy”, fell forward, hitting Mr Chow on the forehead before pinning him to the ground from the waist down.

SSS Ng said that by the time the supervisor was alerted and arrived at the scene, Mr Chow had been propped up and was leaning against a wall.

It was observed that his face was swollen and he was bleeding from the nose and mouth. Mr Chow was taken to Ng Teng Fong General Hospital but was pronounced dead at 9.03am.