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View all search resultsRecent deaths expose Jakarta’s infrastructure safety failures
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Illustration of a police tape sealing a crime scene. (Courtesy of/Shutterstock)
T
he death of a toddler who fell into a pit at the site of an ongoing construction project in South Jakarta has intensified scrutiny of safety standards at Jakarta's infrastructure projects, with experts blaming poor planning and inadequate risk management for exposing the public to preventable dangers.
The four-year-old boy, identified only as I, was pulled from a 4-meter-deep pit at a construction site in Manggarai, Tebet, early on Sunday after being trapped inside for around three hours, according to the Tebet Police.
He was rushed to Cipto Mangunkusumo Hospital (RSCM) in Central Jakarta, where medical staff pronounced him dead on arrival.
Police said the boy fell into the pit while playing with friends near a construction site in a community park, where the Jakarta administration is building a sports court as part of its park revitalization program.
The park sits on the edge of the densely populated neighborhood near Manggarai Station.
Rescuers, including police officers, firefighters and paramedics, had difficulty in retrieving the child because the pit was only about 30 centimeters wide. Authorities deployed two excavators to widen the pit before recovering the victim.
“The initial rescue attempt [without heavy equipment] was unsuccessful because the hole was too narrow, the victim had suffered severe trauma, and there were no volunteers able to enter the pit,” Tebet Police chief Adj. Comr. Ischak said, as quoted by Tempo.co.
