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Friday, December 14, 1973
INDUSTRIAL ACCIDENTS CLAIM RECORD TOLL THIS YEAR
Final Responsibility Lies With Management: Labour Commissioner
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One in every seven people employed in Hong Kong in the past 10
years had been injured at work badly enough to require medical treatment,
the Commissioner of Labour, Mr. I.R. Price, said today.
"The number of accidents in this period was nearly 180,000," he
said. "Or let me put it another way: imagine the entire population
man, woman and child -- of the Tsz Wan Shan and Tung Tau housing estates,
all injured and undergoing medical treatment."
Mr. Price was speaking at a reception held to mark the opening
of South-East Asia's biggest-ever Industrial Safety Exhibition in the
Chinese Manufacturers' Association Pavilion at the C.M.A. Fair.
Guests at the reception included representatives of industrial,
commercial and shipping firms who donated funds or loaned machinery and
equipment for the exhibition.
Mr. Price said: "During the same period of 10 years, 2,340 people
have been killed at work imagine some 30 double-decker buses, stretched
along Queen's Road, Central, and in every seat a mangled, lifeless body."
Mr. Price said people did not realise the magnitude of the toll
Hong Kong faced from accidents at work in terms of human lives, injuries,
and huge losses to the economy.
"How many realise that the number of people killed at work is
about three times the number killed in crimes of violence?" he asked. "'And
that the number of injured at work is double the road accident rate?
Today,