JERUSALEM, May 19 (Xinhua) -- Four workers were killed on Sunday after a crane collapsed at a construction site in the city of Yavne in central Israel.
Three of the workers who were on the ground were killed by crane parts falling, and another worker was trapped on the crane at a height of about 30 meters. The collapsed crane was in dismantling process.
On the same construction site, where two residential buildings are being built, a 31-year-old truck driver was electrocuted last April.
Since the beginning of 2018, 58 workers have been killed in construction sites in Israel, and 20 of which were killed in 2019. Since the beginning of the year, a total of 62 workers have been seriously or moderately injured.
The number of fatalities in the Israeli construction sites is on the rise despite an agreement to promote the workers' safety, signed last November by the government and the state's main trade union, "The Histadrut."
Israel's Labor Minister Haim Katz said that "these accidents must be stopped. The contractors are not to blame, workers have to follow safety rules".
Gilad Erdan, minister of Public Security, said "the number of fatalities on construction sites is inconceivable and the investigation of the accidents must reach the highest levels in the construction companies."
