Kurdistan
Constrcution worker Dana Omer was fatally run over on a construction site on July 4, 2021. Photo: social media
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – A construction worker was ran over and killed by a steam roller on the Sulaimani-Kalar highway on Sunday, according to a police spokesperson. The death follows months of warnings from a workers' advocacy group over fatal conditions at workplaces.
“The driver of the steam roller drove over him accidentally while on the job, he [the driver] was unaware and he [the construction worker] died immediately at the scene,” Garmiyan police spokesperson Ali Jamal Qadwri told Rudaw.
The incident took place near Said Mahmoud village in Kalar’s Bawanoor sub-district.
According to the spokesperson, the labourer’s name was Dana Omer, he was 38 years old and from Sulaimani province’s Darbandikhan town. He was hired to work on a road construction project with a company on the Kalar-Sulaimani road.
“According to the driver and witnesses, the worker was lying under the shade of the steam roller to rest when the driver had driven over him,” he added.
Qadwri stated that the driver was arrested on a judicial decision, according to Section 24 of the traffic code, which indicates that if a driver causes death “driving his/her vehicle in a careless and imprudent manner will be punished by a period of incarceration of no less than five years and not to exceed seven years,” or a fine between one million to 1.5 million Iraqi dinars.
Ten workers have been killed and more than 55 injured in the first four months of 2021 alone due to accidents at work, according to the Kurdistan Workers' Syndicates' Union. Thirty-five people died in workplace accidents in 2020.
The Workers' Syndicate of Sulaimani said in April that employers do not prioritize workers' safety and sounded the alarm on a hazardous lack of protection.
According to the Syndicate's Sulaimani Branch head, only 20% of companies have a contract with their workers, many employers choose not to sign contracts with their workers as a means of avoiding installing safety measures.
In most cases, workers who survive the accidents lose their source of income.
In accordance with Iraq's Labor Code of 1987, Act no. 71, an employer has to ensure safe conditions at the workplace and to take sufficient safety measures designed to protect the worker on the job.
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