11th September 2026 – (Hong Kong) The widow and two adult children of a 50-year-old scaffolder killed in a Sham Shui Po industrial fall are under financial strain, and a workers’ rights group is pressing every tier of contractor to arrange proper aftercare for the family.
The man, surnamed Wan, was working on external wall scaffolding at Nos. 228–230 Yu Chau Street this morning when he plunged from near the rooftop with a wall-mounted “dog-arm” bracket, landing on a podium after dropping from about the seventh floor. He was taken to hospital unconscious and later died. Sources at the scene said he had been wearing a safety harness. A second dog-arm bracket remained fixed to the façade; iron poles that had formed a platform with the loosened bracket were still hanging from the wall.
Fay Siu Sin-man, chief executive of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, said Wan was a third-tier subcontractor who had at times lacked steady work. He arrived this morning to erect scaffolding and fell from a height close to the top storey. He leaves a wife, a son still in education and a daughter not yet in employment. Mrs Wan, Siu said, feels “very anxious and under great pressure”. “We hope the employers — main contractor and subcontractor alike — will offer the family aftercare arrangements to help them through,” she added.
A workmate who had partnered Wan for years, and who said the dead man had been in the trade for more than a decade, was overcome with emotion: “All of us workers will help him.” The association counted the fatality as the year’s 19th construction death and the second linked to hanging scaffolding, saying staff had already reached the hospital to accompany relatives and would keep offering support.
Police received the report at about 11.30am. The Labour Department said officers were sent at once and are investigating the cause; the Buildings Department also attended. Some in the trade speculated that weak external concrete or unstable structure may have played a part, and reminded outdoor crews to assess the strength of concrete before fixing brackets, and to use an independent lifeline anchored to a secure point — advice that comes too late for Wan’s household, now staring at lost wages and an uncertain path through compensation and grief.
