According to the report, this incident was the second such incident at Serdang Hospital which has been operating since December 2005, after the first incident involving the ceiling at the main lobby which collapsed in January last year.
2. Sabah DAP reported here that a large section of ceiling in the QE1 medical ward collapsed in July this year. A large piece of concrete fell down and seriously hurt a patient who was in the ward. CLICK HERE for more details.
3. In May this year, The Malaysian Insider reported that the Penang State Assembly which was due to sit in two days time, suffered the misfortune of a portion of the ceiling in the sitting hall collapsing yesterday. However, there were no casualties. Speaker Datuk Abdul Halim Hussain said approximately 70 per cent of the ceiling over the media and public galleries and where the Hansard writer sits came tumbling down at 3.30pm.
“At the time there were two or three assembly staff in the hall. Fortunately no one was injured,” he said when contacted by Bernama.
He said the Public Works Department had been asked to carry out a probe into to incident and inspect the safety of the premises.
On July 23 2008, four square metres of plaster ceiling in the lobby of the same building came tumbling down and narrowly missing people present.
4. On December 14th 2010, NST reported that it was a close call for 15 mothers and their newborn babies when the plaster ceiling of the Penang Hospital maternity ward came crashing down yesterday morning. Fortunately, no one was injured in the 8am incident.
The incident was believed to have been caused by a leaking pipe after the contractor changed the piping system from steel to PVC back in 1998. The mothers and their babies were evacuated to enable repair works to be carried out.
A study by Azuin Binti Ramli, Zainal Abidin Bin Akasah, Mohd Idrus Bin Hj. Mohd Masirin of the Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), 86400 Parit Raja, Batu Pahat, Johor, Malaysia on Building Safety and Health Modelling Framework for Polytechnic Buildings in Malaysia revealed:
The implementation of safety and health measures on building should be addressed during their life cycles to improve the occupants’ quality of life. Review of literatures shows that the design and management systems of building safety and health should be an integral part of all building systems.
Otherwise, they may pose safety and health hazards to the occupants and affected the performance of polytechnic buildings in Malaysia. More effort is necessary to boost this application especially towards the safety of buildings.
The safety of new and existing buildings must be well planned to ensure that its occupants can live in it safely.
Comprehensive ways, tools and concept must be develop to determine performance indicators and criteria for safety and health building, focusing in general on the prevention of safety and health problems.
The development of frameworks will intend to guide research efforts consolidate past
research and to construct a relevant concepts and theory of the systems that can serve as a common point of reference and integrate them into descriptive or predictive models [1].
It is hoped that such a structured approach will enhance better communication with shared understanding in which effectiveness research can build in specific areas.
There are numbers of unpleasant incidents, which occur due to failure of design, structural, materials used and maintenance problems.
Reports by Lai [2] revealed the ceiling collapse at the Serdang Hospital’s main lobby and to worsen the cases of roof collapse at Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium after a year officially opened to host the 2008 Sukma Games [3].
Thus, the Housing and Local Government Ministry is responsible the implementation of Uniform Building By-laws towards sustainable development in Malaysia. Efforts are being made to provide a robust basis for policy development to make Malaysian buildings more safety, health and environment-friendly.
The amendment of the By-laws will incorporate green building technologies and features include building materials and architecture [4].
Therefore, a safety and health framework will be created and planned according to local design, construction quality, climate, environment conditions and the use of existing buildings in Malaysia. Furthermore, the comprehensive and efficient framework can support building policies, regulations and maintenance [5,6,7] to provide detailed safety requirements and regulations with clear guidance for easy implementation by designers, architects and building managers.
CLICK HERE for ACT 514 OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH ACT 1994 (incorporating all amendments up to 1 January 2006).
This link leads you to ACT 663 BUILDING AND COMMON PROPERTY (MAINTENANCE AND MANAGEMENT) ACT 2007.
This site is where you can read GUIDELINES ON OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH
IN THE SERVICE SECTOR.
It is time the authorities concerned step up efforts to monitor the safety of buildings that members of the public can walk into any building and not fear the roof will fall on their heads. They must seriously consider the development of safety and health requirements/standards which can be used as an assessment framework, process and benchmarking tool for building performance evaluation in terms of safety and health.
Safety First Above All Else!
UP41 Interesting! One small screw caused the incident. Climbed up your house ceiling you will notice a normal house ceiling will not come down with one screw went loose. This is a building supposed to designed by professional, built by professional And he is telling us 1 little screw did it. Is this done by PCK contractor from Sg? I wonder.......