A forklift driver has been jailed over a workplace accident in which a quality control surveyor was crushed to death, the Straits Times reports.

Malaysian citizen Arumugam Ganesan, 45, was sentenced to 138 days’ jail after pleading guilty to an offence under Singapore’s Workplace Safety and Health Act.

Ganesan lowered a 2 T container onto Teo Ser Kiong on 1 October, 2021, while both men were working at a Allied Container Engineers and Manufacturers depot.

Last year coroner Adam Nakhoda found Teo did not inform a depot manager he was entering the area where containers were being moved, as required by the company’s regulations.

Ministry of Manpower prosecutor Delvinder Singh said Ganesan had presumed there was no one in the path of his forklift when he was moving containers.

When he noticed a container he lowered wasn’t level to the ground, he raised it to find Teo underneath. Teo was pronounced dead at the scene.

Coroner Nakhoda had found Teo’s death, the 30th workplace fatality in Singapore in 2021, to be a work-related misadventure.