SINGAPORE - The assistant diving supervisor of a ship repair company was sentenced to 12 weeks' jail on Tuesday over an underwater incident in 2014 which resulted in the death of a diver.
Underwater Contractors and its supervisor, David Ng Wei Li, 37, had been found guilty each of an offence under the Workplace Safety and Health Act in February this year, following a trial. Several attempts by other divers to pull him away from the opening failed and he was only retrieved after the pump in the starboard sea chest - which is meant to suck in seawater to cool the ship's engines and generators - was shut down.
In their earlier submissions, Ministry of Manpower prosecutors Delvinder Singh and Shanty Priya had told the court that Underwater Contractors had failed to ensure that safe work procedures were adopted during the diving operation, among other things.