Trial begins for Stars Engrg director, manager involved in 2021 Tuas explosion that killed three

CNA

2 days ago

SINGAPORE: The trial for the company behind an explosion at Tuas in 2021 that killed three workers and injured seven others opened in the State Courts on Tuesday (Jun 3).
Stars Engrg, whose core business was the installation of fire protection systems, was the occupier of the premises at 32E Tuas Avenue 11, where the blast occurred on Feb 24, 2021.
The company, its sole director Chua Xing Da and production manager Lwin Moe Tun are all contesting charges under the Workplace Safety and Health Act for safety lapses.
Chua, a 41-year-old Singaporean, and Lwin Moe Tun, a 35-year-old Myanmar national, also face obstruction of justice charges relating to what they did after the accident.
All three are represented by lawyer Chia Boon Teck, while Lwin Moe Tun is additionally represented by lawyer Foo Cheow Ming.
An inquiry committee convened to look into the accident concluded in March 2022 that the explosion was mainly brought about by the company's failure to ensure the safe use of a mixer machine.
Stars Engrg workers were preparing the machine to mix potato starch powder with heated water at their workshop in Tuas when the explosion happened.
They were manufacturing 'fire clay' for use in an insulation wrap which goes around piping and ducting systems.
The committee found that the initial rapture of an oil jacket resulted in the initial blast. This ignited potato starch powder that had accumulated in the air, causing subsequent flash fires.
Court documents – agreed by both the prosecution and defence – set out the timeline of events leading to the explosion, including how employees had found the machine smoking and leaking on several occasions.
Twelve days before the incident, a fire occurred at the machine and was put out by two employees.
Another small fire occurred on the morning of the incident, hours before the explosion at 11.22am on Feb 24, 2021.
The explosion was followed by three flash fires. The inferno was extinguished at 11.46am by the Singapore Civil Defence Force.
PROSECUTION'S CASE
Opening its case on Tuesday, the prosecution said that Chua bought the mixer machine in August 2019 from a company in China via the Alibaba online platform. The machine was installed on Jun 12, 2020.
Stars Engrg and Chua used the mixer machine improperly and continued to use it despite "clear indications that it was unsafe to use", the prosecution said.
"This created an environment of risk to the health and safety (of) every person at the worksite," Deputy Public Prosecutors Timotheus Koh, Grace Chua, Mohamed Riasudeen and Goh Qi Shuen said.
They said that they will be leading evidence from Stars Engrg employees and experts to show that the company and Chua:
Used insufficient thermic oil
Operated the mixer machine as a "closed system" without pressure monitoring
Failed to monitor the oil jacket temperature
Continued using the mixer machine despite incidents that showed it was unsafe to use, and took inappropriate and insufficient steps to ensure that it was safe for continued use
The company and Chua owed a duty of care to their employees but failed to ensure that they had adequate instruction, information, training and supervision to perform their work, the prosecution said.
They also failed to ensure that safety measures were taken and failed to provide a safe environment for the employees.
It added that Lwin Moe Tun negligently endangered the safety of Stars Engrg employees by allowing them to conduct repairs on the mixer machine's heater despite the risks involved.
After the accident, Lwin Moe Tun allegedly asked Chua if he could delete a WhatsApp conversation between him and one of the deceased employees, Subbaiyan Marimuthu, on Feb 25, 2021. The conversation was eventually deleted.
Both of them allegedly knew that deleting this communication could obstruct investigations into the incident, the prosecution said.
VICTIMS AND INJURIES
The three who died were employees working at the time of the incident.
They are: Bangladeshi nationals Anisuzzaman Md, 29, Shohel Md, 23, and Indian national Subbaiyan Marimuthu, 38. Each sustained about 90 per cent or more total body surface area burns.
Five other Stars Engrg employees - all Bangladeshi nationals - were hurt. They are Mr Ahmmed Lizon, Mr Hossain Jitu, Mr Mehedi, Mr Molla Md Yousuf, and Mr Rahad Asfaquzzaman. They sustained total body surface area burns of at least 35 per cent and have permanent disfiguration from their injuries.
Another two men employed at a unit opposite the premises, Mr Miah Md Azam and Mr Zhao Jian Wang were also injured.