REPORT ON HIGHLAND TOWER TRAGEDY

NAME OF LECTURER: DR WAN ZAIREEN NISA YAHYA

BY

BIL NAME MATRIC ID

1. SITI NORSYAMINA BINTI MOHD SAUPI 18002253

2. WAN NURIN JAZIMA BINTI WAN OMAR 17010733

3. PUTERI NATRAH SYAFIQAH BINTI RIZUAN 18002263

4. NUR KAMILIA BINTI SOBRI 17007941

5. ALIA SYUHADA BINTI ABD RAHMAN 18002257

 TABLE OF CONTENT

1. ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………...........
2. DECLARATION……………………………………………………………
3. INTRODUCTION AND
BACKGROUND……………………………………………………………
4. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION
4.1 THE EVENT……………………………………………………………..
4.2 THE POTENTIAL CONSEQUENCES………………………………….
4.3 RECOMMENDATION ON THE HAZARD IDENTIFICATIONS, RISK
ASSESMENT AND RISK
CONTROL………………………………………………………….......
4.4 LAW, ACT &
REGULATIONS…………………………………………………………
5. CONCLUSION AND
RECOMMENDATIONS……………………………………………………
6. REFERENCES………………………………………………………………
ABSTRACT

This report details the tragedy of Highland Tower collapsed which was happened
in Selangor, Malaysia. The tragedy occurred in 1993, where it caused the deaths of
48 people and led to the evacuation of the other two blocks due to safety concern.
The block 1 of Highland Tower collapsed due to a major landslide after 10 days of
continuous days of rainfall. This report covered the causes of the tragedy, its
implications and also the others possibilities that could happen due to the tragedy.
The tower that built in 1978 collapsed not only because of the landslides but also due
to the poor and improper drainage facility provided for the blocks. The rubble wall
of the blocks were found to be improperly designed by the architect at that time and
caused the towers to become unstable and collapsed. This report covered starting
from the day of the tragedy, the search and rescue mission done on the victims and
also the laws and regulations acted on the authoritised party and defendant related to
the collapse. On 12th December 1993, where the tragedy happened, there were
around 124 members of the Federal Preserve Unit (FRU) and around 30 military
personnel and also Wardieburn Camp were deployed to rescue all the victims
involved. Luckily, there were three victims that are still alive on that day as the
search and rescue mission was done as quick as possible. After several days of
rescuing the victims, there was judgement in the High Court of Malaya at Kuala
Lumpur (Civil Division) between the plaintiff and also other 10 defendants.
Highland Propertis Sdn Bhd was included as one of the defendant as the company
was held responsible for not hiring a qualified architect for the project. The others
defendant also were mentioned of their liability regarding the collapse of this tower.
This tragedy can be avoided if the employers and also the employees held a
responsible to not cause any risk and concerned about the public safety.
 DECLARATION

1. I, Siti Norsyamina Mohd Saupi (18002253) have fully contributed to this team project
by attending all group meetings and by completing my share of the task assigned
while discussing amongst team members.

Signature

________________
SITI NORSYAMINA MOHD SAUPI

2. I, Puteri Natrah Syafiqah Ridzuan (18002263) have fully contributed to this team
project by attending all group meetings and by completing my share of the task
assigned while discussing amongst team members.

Signature

________________
PUTERI NATRAH SYAFIQAH BINTI RIZUAN

3. I, Wan Nurin Jazima Binti Wan Omar (17010733) have fully contributed to this team
project by attending all group meetings and by completing my share of the task
assigned while discussing amongst team members.

Signature

________________
WAN NURIN JAZIMA BINTI WAN OMAR

4. I, Nur Kamilia Binti Sobri (17007941) have fully contributed to this team project by
attending all group meetings and by completing my share of the task assigned while
discussing amongst team members.
 Signature

_______________
NUR KAMILIA BINTI SOBRI

5. I, Alia Syuhada Binti Abd Rahman (18002257) have fully contributed to this team
project by attending all group meetings and by completing my share of the task
assigned while discussing amongst team members.

Signature

________________
ALIA SYUHADA BINTI ABD RAHMAN

INTRODUCTION & BACKGROUND

 Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) is generally about the rules and regulations
regarding the safety and health of the employees, employers and related communities. HSE
further emphasizes the principles to be held by the employees together by the employers to
ensure further safety for the people involved in the particular area. Furthermore, HSE is part
of the crucial components to ensure the sustainability of the framework for a company and it
is to be followed thoroughly as one of the importance of HSE is to prevent illness and injury.
Furthermore, by following HSE thoroughly, the employers would have the needs to provide
suffice training to all the employees which will enhance the employees’ understanding
regarding the existing hazards in the working environment. HSE is further useful as it reduces
the hazards of safety and health. The usage of specific hazardous material handling guidelines
will be provided by the Occupational Safety Hazard Organization (OSHA) to the particular
company which later will be followed by the employees. This will help the employees to have
better skills in handling the hazards especially when the emergency takes place. The report
has several objectives that are deemed as the factors that drove us to create a report regarding
the Highland Towers tragedy. Based on the official website of Department of Occupational,
Safety and Health (DOSH), the national occupational accident and fatality rate that occurred
in 2018 is 2.40 for the accident rate and 4.14 for the fatality rate compared to 2017 which had
the accident rate of 2.93 and fatality rate of 4.90. Based on the statistic posted by DOSH, the
number of accidents happened related to occupation in 2018 is 35,460 accidents while the
number of deaths related to occupation in 2018 is 611 deaths. In Malaysia, there were around
14.78 millions of workers known in Malaysia in 2018. All the accidents that happen can be
reported to the Department of Occupational, Safety and Health to be further investigated and
revised. However, DOSH has confirmed that only around 7,258 cases related to occupation
accidents were reported in 2018. The state that has the most cases of occupation accidents in
2018 is Selangor which had 7,537 cases followed by Johor which has 7,327 cases. First, the
report is created due to the fact that the faulty and defects occurred to be revised again.
Furthermore, when there is a detection of the faulty or defects, some improvements can be
implied. This report also can help us in preventing further incident like Highland Towers
tragedy which was fatal and deadly. The report helps us to study and have a better
understanding about the causes and the consequences of the tragedy of Highland Towers.
The report generally touches specific important topics such as the specific details of the
tragedy that took place. Besides, it also highlights the consequences that affect the
surroundings and the people that used to be the residents of the buildings. Hazard
identifications especially the existing hazards during the tragedy are also being discussed in
the report. Laws, acts and regulations involved in the tragedy that took place on 11 December
1993 are also further explained with certain and specific details in this report. Our team chose
Highland Towers tragedy due to the fact it is considered as one of the deadliest and fatal
incidents that happened in Malaysia which involved landslide. In the same way, the tragedy
could have been prevented but it happened due to the negligence by the developers and its
employers in ensuring the safety of the buildings to be occupied by people. In fact, the
buildings were designed by an architect, who was known as Wong Tin Sang and it was also
built by a group of certified engineers and of the engineer was known as Ir. Wong. Lastly,
there were some signs shown around the buildings that could have been detected as the
worrisome signs as it had shown that the buildings are not safe to be occupied but the signs
were ignored by the developers.

FINDINGS & DISCUSSION

 1. The event

The event of where Highland Towers collapsed on 12 th December 1993 caused a

commotion among Malaysians since it was considered as one of the most fatal incidents for
that particular year. As for the chronology of this incident, it first started with certain signs
such as the bursting of pipe and it caused the water to flow down the hill slopes. On
November 1993, there was a crack that begun to form, and it had widened on the road until it
led to the Highland Towers. It all happened on December 1993, at Taman Hillview, Ulu
Klang, Selangor and the day was begun with the collapse of Block 1 around 1.35 p.m due to
the landslide from the uphill development after raining heavily for 10 days. There were
around 124 members of the Federal Preserve Unit (FRU) and around 30 military personnel
and engineers from Batu Cantonment Camp and also Wardieburn Camp were deployed to
search and rescue all the victims involved.

The tragedy happened due to a sudden landslide after raining heavily for 10 days and
that was influenced by the bursting of the pipe that eventually caused the soil around the area
to be washed away. The pipes were initially used to divert the water that flowed onto the
stream. Another caused of this tragedy is the poor and improper drainage facility provided for
the blocks. There was also an inconsistency regarding the Land Conservation Act with
Environment Quality Act 1974. It has also been confirmed that the rubble walls around Block
1 that were administered poorly had been proven to have an inadequate design. The rubble
wall had no additional support and the was no resistance of the wall itself. The building had
become more fragile as the building’s burden increased. The increment of the building’s
burden has caused the apartment to be more unstable and it had created a very high pressure
on the pile of the buildings. In addition, the developments which takes place at Hill
International has caused the mud flood due to clearing plants around those area and the mud
flood has caused the road around apartment cracked. This incident led to soil erosions on the
hill slope and caused the structure of the soil became weak until it led to the landslides. The
water that was flowing over the soil surrounded the towers had influenced the soil erosion to
occur which then caused the slope to become weaker until the landslide happened. The
geological condition and the types off the soil also encourage the landslide to occur because
the geologist from National University of Malaysia (UKM) stated that the soil were mixed
with the sand and it showed that the soil were not that strong. Other than that, the designs of
the slope and the rubble walls at Block 1 were found to be improperly designed by the
architect, Wong Tin Sang. Wong Tin Sang was found of not having the qualification to
design the building which is more than 2 level. In additional, there was a piling up behind the
Block 1 which later caused an increment of the lateral pressure to the building’s foundation.
This further influenced the collapse of rubble walls which then followed by the collapse of
the building.

The tragedy has taken around 48 lives including the former deputy prime minister, Datuk
Musa Hitam’s son and wife. The victims are mainly Malaysians including 12 foreigner and
the tragedy has caused loss of property that worth millions of ringgits. The search and rescue
mission started right after the collapse occur and the incident had been responded by
particular parties and it was done as quick as possible. It has been responded by 124 members
of FRU, 30 military personnel and engineers that came from Batu Cantonment Camp and also
Wardieburn camp. There were also hundreds of policemen and firemen together with the
rescue teams from Hospital Kuala Lumpur (HKL) that arrived on that particular place where
the scene had taken place. The rescue team had found three victims that are still alive on that
day which are Umi Rashidah, 22 and her daughter Nur Hamidah, 18 months and Shizue
Nakajima, 50 but Shizue was pronounced dead in Hospital Kuala Lumpur due to severe
internal bleeding and injuries. On 17th December, the cabinet committee had been decided to
stop the rescue efforts and starts the search of the dead. The search and rescue teams from
other countries like Singapore, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States also came to
help the rescue and search mission. The search was continued until on 21 December, the
police confirms that 48 bodies were recovered at Highland Tower and the search was ended
on 22 December.

The tragedy had caused the acts of environment to be reviewed by the authority and the
damage done to the environment has seriously caused some effect to the affected areas. There
was a decrement to the demands of having a house on the hillsides. After the tower 1 has
collapsed, all of the residents in block 2 and block 3 had been evacuated for safety purposes.
There were some plans made to repair the buildings of remaining Blocks 2 and 3 in 1995 but
the blocks were no longer structurally safe as the other two building may also collapse at any
time. Due to that, the entire site was abandoned as the residents were required to move out
from there.
 Furthermore, there was an appointment for the chairman of the Technical Committee to
investigate the tragedy and the chairman was Dr Nik Hassan Nik Ramlan on 22 nd December
1993. MPAJ was given an authorization to set up a particular investigate body. Any of the
building projects that were to be done on the hillsides were abruptly stopped by the Cabinet
until a new policy to be approved. All the buildings that had more than 5 storey high and were
placed on the hillsides were asked to get a verification from a qualified consultant regarding
the stability and the safety of the building. The formulation of a policy that was related to the
development in highlands were announced by the Deputy Prime Minister and it was to be
done by the Federal Government as to prevent further incidents like Highland Towers. It also
has been decided that the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is needed if there were to
be any development project that is to be done on the highlands to render the decision.

The event was actually preventable because there could be some measurements taken to
actually repair the defects that were there before the incident took place. It has been found out
that the drainage system was built imperfectly. The drainage system was not a complete
drainage system and there were some defects to design of the drainage system per se. Besides,
the construction of the building at the hillside should be revise carefully before it had been
approved. This is because, a lot of things should be considered especially due to safety
reasons in order to do a construction at hillside. Furthermore, the developer of the buildings
could have chosen the employees who have the credibility and who are qualified to design the
buildings. Lastly, the developer for Bukit Antarabangsa development should not have cut
down the trees surrounded the hills to prevent further erosion of the soil.
 2. The potential consequences

Based on Highland Tower Tragedy, the worst thing that could have happened is that
all the blocks 2 and 3 also collapsed just like what happened to block 1. In 1993, blocks 2 and
3 were evacuated hence majority of the victims were from block 1. If blocks 2 and 3
collapsed, most probably all the residents would have died or suffered from severe injuries.
Next, what could have been worst is that the collapse could have affected the houses and
buildings around that area which would cause more deaths. This would lead to the
possibilities of decreasing demands over residential on hillsides. After the accident, most of
the residents around that area moved out from their houses due to feeling unsafe.
These tragedies could have been prevented as Blocks 2 and 3 were located away from
the hills, where the landslide came from. Furthermore, the residents from blocks 2 and 3 were
quickly evacuated to safer place as they witnessed the falling of block 1. The houses and
buildings around that area were also safe as everyone from rescue team took immediate
action to prevent the worst from happening.

Table 1
 Table 1 shows the major landslides in Ulu Klang area from 1993 to 2008. From this
table we can show that the tragedies that were caused by landslides happened once a year,
except for Bukit Antarabangsa Tragedy that happened in 1999, which was 6 years after
Highland Tower Tragedy. This proves that Highland Tower Tragedy had a profound effect to
the Malaysians.

The worst injury or damage that could have resulted from the tragedy would be the
high costs to rescue the victims, the compensation to the family of the victims and most
importantly the whole area consists of three similar 13-storey blocks were left inhabited and
at the same time, cigarette butts, drink bottles and needles with syringes were among the
debris left behind by those who snuck in at night. The worst injury to the family of the victim
would be the pain of losing their loved ones which causes trauma for the rest of their lives.
The tragedy in 1993 caused 48 deaths as the rescue team succeeds in saving other
residents but the tragedy could have taken all lives if there was no immediate action from the
authorised parties.
 3. Recommendations on the hazard identification, risks assessment and risk control
(HIRARC)

Just like any accident, this Highland Tower Tragedy also needs to do HIRARC.
HIRARC stands for hazard identification, risk assessment and risk control. Based on the
research that we did on this case, there are few hazards that can be identified, one of them is
the drainage system that was built imperfectly. This imperfect drainage system was said to
have some defects in its designs. Next, it was the rubble walls around Block 1 that had been
proven to have an inadequate design. The rubble wall had caused the building to be more
unstable as it was fragile whenever the burden of the building increased hence the increment
of the building had created a very high pressure on the pile of the buildings. Lastly, it was the
area of the development which takes place at Bukit Antarabangsa that caused this accident to
happen. The development of the building had caused clearing plants which led to mud flood
then the crack of the road around the apartment.

Table 2: Risk matrix

 The risk that can be caused by the hazards that were mentioned above is severe injury
and death. This is because the design of the building was the main factor of the collapse of
Highland Tower. When there was any mistake in designing the building, which lack of safety
and without any considerations about the development area, this will definitely cause accident
that can take many lives. The likehood that the severity will occur is 5 and the severity of the
outcome is 4 since it is fatal. Based on the table 2, the risk level is 20 which required
immediate action to control the hazard

We also have found some ways to control the risks from happening. One of them
is that the developers of the building need to consider certain things before they proceed in
developing the condominium. One of them is the area of the construction which takes place
at the hillside, which needs to do clearing plants that leads to mud flood and then landslides.
Other than that, the developers also should hire qualified employees to design the buildings
and put safety as the first priority.
 4. Laws, Acts and Regulations

According to the improvement of OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Act) 1994,
there’s a guideline for choosing construction site for the development where it highlighted
that if possible, deforestation should be avoided and water reservoir should also be protected.
Based on the findings regarding the tragedy, one of the root cause of the collapse was due to
the negligence of these guidelines.

As the results of the Highland Tower’s collapse, there’s a judgement in the High
Court of Malaya at Kuala Lumpur (Civil Division) with civil suit no: S5 – 21 – 174 – 1996
between the plaintiff who are Steven Phoa Cheng Loon and 72 Ors, and 10 defendants. The
first defendant was Highland Properties Sdn Bhd which was the developer of Highland
Towers. The second defendant was Wong Tin Sang (t/a Konsortium Jurubina Perunding), an
architectural draughtsman, who was the purported architect of Highland Towers. The third
defendant was Wong Yuen Kean (t/a Waja Perunding), the engineer for Highland Towers.
The fourth defendant was Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya, the local authority at the
material time that has jurisdiction over the Highland Towers site, the hillslope directly at the
rear of Highland Towers which is Arab Malaysian Land and areas of the surroundings. The
fifth defendant was Arab - Malaysian Finance Bhd. who was the registered owner of Arab –
Malaysian land. Sixth defendant was Tropic Development Sdn Bhd, a company that carried
out clearing works on the Arab Malaysian Land in the late 1978 and early of 1979. The eighth
defendant was MBf Property Services Sdn Bhd, who provides management services to the
seventh defendant in order to develop Metrolux Land, turning it into housing estate. The
ninth and tenth defendants were the State Government Selangor and the Director of Lands &
Mines of the Selangor state where they were the State Government entities
Liability
Based on the findings of the liability by the court:

The first defendant was held responsible for not hiring a qualified architect. Plus, sufficient
and adequate terraces were not constructed, retaining walls and drains on the hills slope
which could reasonably have been foreseen to have caused the collapse and diverting the East
Stream from its natural course and failing to make sure the pipe culvert diversion was
adequate, and in nuisance for not maintaining drains and retaining walls.
The second defendant was held responsible for not having ensured adequate drainage and
retaining walls that were built on the hill slopes adjacent to the Highland Towers site, which
he foresaw or ought to have foreseen, would pose a danger to the buildings he was
responsible of and also for not complying with the requirements of the authorities in respect
of drainage, in colluding with the primary defendant and third defendant (the engineer) to get
a Certificate of Fitness without fulfilling the conditions imposed by the fourth defendant (the
Local Authority), in so doing not complying with his duties as an architect. The third
defendant also does not investigate the terracing of the hill slopes and construction of
retaining walls even though he was aware they would affect the buildings he was responsible
of, and also in nuisance as he was an unreasonable user of land.

The third defendant was responsible for not having taken under consideration on the hill or
slope behind the Towers, also because they didn’t designed and construct a foundation to
accommodate the lateral loads a landslide or alternatively to ensure that the adjacent hill
slopes was stable. They were also held responsible for colluding with the primary and Second
Defendant to urge a Certificate of Fitness without fulfilling the conditions imposed by the
Fourth Defendant.

The Fourth Defendant (Local Authority) although negligent in respect of its duties related to
building. i.e. in respect of approval of building plans, to make sure implementation of the
approved system during construction, and within the issue of the Certificate of Fitness, was
nonetheless conferred immunity by reason of s95(2) of the road , Drainage and Building Act.
The Fourth Defendant was however not immune in respect of its negligence in completing its
post building functions of maintaining the East Stream. This also attracted liability in
nuisance.

The Fifth Defendant (Arab-Malaysian Finance Bhd.) was liable in negligence in failing to
take care of the drains on its land, and in taking measures to revive stability on its land after
the collapse.

The Sixth Defendant (an abortive purchaser of the Arab-Malaysian Land who administered
site clearing works) wasn't found liable on the evidence.

The Seventh Defendant, who was from Metrolux Properties and its Project Manager who was
the Eighth Defendant, were held responsible for preventing water from flowing downhill
which is into their site and instead, they directed water into the East Stream, once they knew
that this would be able to increase the quantity of water and inject silt, especially where there
was extensive clearing on their land, into the East Stream where it might be deposited, which
might successively leads to the failure of the system and the collapse of Block 1.

The Ninth and Tenth Defendants (essentially the State Government) weren't found liable
thanks to a technical issue in respect of the actual party sued.

The building apartment on the hillside was against the Land Conservation Act 1960. The
Act doesn’t allow the development carried out on the hillsides with slopes greater than 18
degree for reasons connected to the environment that it may be harmful. With those
statements stated above, this would affect others.
RESPONSIBILITIES OF EMPLOYERS AND EMPLOYEES ASSOCIATED WITH
THE COLLAPSE OF HIGHLAND TOWERS

Responsibilities of employers:

1. As soon as signs of collapse were detected, employers must immediately inform every
residents and confirm that each one residents could evacuate safely.
2. Confirm that each one residents don't get panic during the collapse. During a hectic
circumstances, residents could get panicked and would worsen things , thus they ought to
be explained and informed well about things to calm them down.
3. Contact the acceptable emergency authorities. Call people whose duties are to assist during
this accident like the ambulance and medical person.
4. An employer should provide and maintain systems of labour that are safe and without
health risk. During this case of the Highland Tower collapse, as we could see, the
employer (the organisation) didn't manage to try to do this because the building collapse
because the results of construction were conducted in haphazardous manner.

5. Provide proper maintenances at every building from time to time when necessary.

6. Supported ISO 14001 requirements Clause 4.4.47 (Emergency Preparedness and

Response), it's stated that:

i. An organisation shall establish and maintain procedures to spot potential and

response to accidents and emergency situations, and for preventing and mitigating the
environmental impacts which may be associated to them.

ii. Where necessary, the organisation shall review and revise its emergency
preparedness and response procedures, especially, after the occurrence of accidents or
emergency situations.

iii. Plus, the organisation shall also periodically test such variables where
practicable.
Responsibilities of employees:

1. All employees involved at the location like the safety guards, must save themselves
within the residency by evacuating the place immediately. 2. Report back to the employer
when an emergency occurs.
3. An employee should lookout and make sure the safety of himself and other person 4. An
employee should provide full cooperation to the employer and other persons in complying
with the wants OSHA 1994.
5. Supported by the code of professional product (BEM):

i. A Registered Engineer shall in the least times hold paramount the security, health and
welfare of the general public.
ii. A Registered Engineer shall conduct himself honourably, responsibly, ethically and
lawfully in order to enhance the honour, reputation and usefulness of the profession.
 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

To conclude, Highland Tower Tragedy had given such a huge impact towards the
society in Malaysia. In order to avoid similar tragedy from reoccurring, every parties
involved, either directly or indirectly should take deep lessons by analyzing the incident in
details and make improvements, earlier preparation and also prevention steps. Going through
the details of the event, it is proved that the major cause of the landslide is due to the
haphazardous planning in the construction of the buildings such as the building’s structural
failure. In addition, it is also implied that neglection of the safety laws enacted could lead to
serious accident and in worser cases, would even lead to deaths of innocent people. Thus,
prompt actions should be taken regarding to this issue.

As the recommendations on how do we prevent and to overcome this tragedy if it

reoccurs, in the context of the building owner, they should hire professional and experienced
contractors or for at least, new inexperienced contractors should be assigned to an
experienced mentor to guide and monitor them or should have received proper training before
involving themselves in the construction. Professional body should monitor every members
and penalize any member who were found responsible if any accident occurs. They should
also engaged in construction process to ease the workflow of the construction. In context of
the government, the government should offer hands to assist in the investigation not only in
order to find out about the root cause of the tragedy, but also to inform the victims regarding
the party who are held responsible for the collapse and from whom that they should make a
claim. On the other hand, the government should also enforce and monitor laws that would
take care of the quality of buildings’ construction.

REFERENCES