SINGAPORE \u2013 Seven people died in work-related traffic accidents in the first half of 2026, including four platform workers.<\/p>\n
This is double the number of platform-worker fatalities recorded for the whole of 2025<\/span><\/a>, said Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash on July 23.<\/p>\n The deaths are \u201cdeeply concerning\u201d, he said, even though a few fatal accidents were caused by other road users.<\/p>\n In an address at the Workplace Safety and Health (WSH) Conference, Dinesh said platform workers face greater risks from spending long hours on the road.<\/p>\n The WSH Council has reminded employers to address key risks, including those related to vehicular safety and hazards arising from routine maintenance work.<\/p>\n Dinesh said: \u201cWhat we are seeing is that many of these incidents are no longer confined to traditionally high-risk activities. Increasingly, accidents are occurring during routine work.\u201d<\/p>\n For example, there have been incidents involving vehicles rolling backwards because handbrakes were not engaged, or situations where earlier reporting could have prevented a tragedy, he added.<\/p>\n \u201cThis tells us that we must go beyond focusing only on traditionally high-risk work. We must also pay close attention to routine tasks and ensure that necessary safety measures are consistently observed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Tackling workplace safety, however, extends beyond preventing accidents. \u201cWe must also ensure that workers remain safe, healthy and productive throughout their working lives,\u201d Dinesh added.<\/p>\n To that end, the Ministry of Manpower (MOM), National Trades Union Congress and Singapore National Employers Federation have made a joint call for ideas through the new Alliance for Action on Safety and Health for Employment Longevity.<\/p>\n Key areas the alliance aims to address include injury prevention, improving support for workers returning to work after injury or illness, and redesigning jobs and work processes to make them safer and more inclusive.<\/p>\n Any Singapore-registered organisation can submit ideas for innovation projects by Aug 31. Participants will be required to commit to a period of about 14 months, from August 2026 to October 2027.<\/p>\n To get funding and support, participants \u201cmust actively drive the development of their prototypes\u201d, provide regular progress updates, and take part in an engagement session to gather feedback. More details will be shared with those selected, according to information on the MOM website.<\/p>\n Dinesh also touched on three WSH Council initiatives at the biennial <\/i><\/b>conference, which was held at the Marina Bay Sands Expo and Convention Centre this year.<\/p>\n First, a mandatory programme to inculcate the values of workplace safety in the top management of all firms in higher-risk industries will be beefed up. It will become more interactive and include material like case studies.<\/p>\n Second, a new artificial intelligence-powered tool will become available in early 2027. It will help analyse photographs of workplaces and identify safety risks and provide guidance. It will also provide language support for migrant workers.<\/p>\n Also, from July 23, a new WhatsApp channel will send out workplace safety advisories and announcements.<\/p>\n Minister of State for Manpower Dinesh Vasu Dash speaking at the Workplace Safety and Health Conference on July 23.<\/p>\n ST PHOTO: GIN TAY<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n Speaking to The Straits Times at the sidelines of the event, WSH Council general manager Christopher Koh said such information is available on the WSH website.<\/p>\n With the popular WhatsApp messaging platform, it will become easier and faster to get advisories and guidelines to workers on the front line.<\/p>\n As at June 26, there had been 21 workplace fatalities in 2026, with seven taking place within a four-week span.<\/p>\n Asked about the spate of deaths, Koh said these occur from time to time, spurring the council to strengthen its measures. In the longer term, however, he added that the level of awareness about workplace safety, and willingness of firms to comply, has improved.<\/p>\n Reminding firms to be vigilant and \u201cnot to take things for granted\u201d, he said there could also be risks present when performing routine tasks.<\/p>\n To address the spike in workplace deaths, MOM has put in place stricter enforcement measures since June 26.<\/p>\n These include increasing the composition fine for safety offences from $2,000 to $3,000 for first-time offences, and barring firms from hiring new migrant workers for three months if the firm has cases of serious accidents.<\/p>\n The measures will be in place until July 31 and will be extended if safety outcomes do not improve.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n SINGAPORE \u2013 Seven people died in work-related traffic accidents in the first half of 2026, including four platform workers. This is double the number of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":71271,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2611],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-71270","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-headlines","wpcat-2611-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=71270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/71270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/71271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=71270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=71270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=71270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/picture><\/div>
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