We have often spoke about drones doing good in carrying out jobs that are currently too dangerous for humans to undertake, but in Hong Kong, this may soon become a legal requirement.

Reports from China indicate that Hong Kong may start using drones to carry out worksite safety inspections and gather evidence from next year, following the death of eleven people in industrial accidents in the first half of 2024.

In response, authorities in the region had to issue out 3,600 orders to contractors by September to improve or halt their projects.

The South China Morning Post quoted Hong Kong’s Deputy Commissioner for Labour Vincent Fung Hao-yin telling a manpower panel meeting in the legislature this Monday that the government would step up its use of technology to improve safety.

“The construction industry, in the area of occupational safety, is one that has a relatively high number of incidents,” Fung said.

“When we look at our records, such as the inspections or our manpower deployment, we expend more than half of our resources on this industry and the other half on all other industries.

“Our department is looking into building our drone fleet for aerial photography and using the images collected to produce three-dimensional photorealistic models to aid evidence collection and law enforcement operations.”

The drones could be operational in the latter half of next year, Fung added.

In an industry that some may think is notorious for its slow uptake of technology integration, drone technology in the construction sector has become essential for a number of applications, which include site assessment, planning and design, project progress monitoring, security; as well as maintenance.

The benefits have also been immediately realised too and aside from making dangerous jobs safer, other benefits include costs reduction, improvement in project outcomes, optimisation of resource utilisation, and fostering innovation

According to Hong Kong’s Labour Department, five of the eleven industrial accident fatalities in the first half of 2024 were from the construction industry. These accidents involved two cases of “exposure to or contact with harmful substance”, two of “struck by falling object” and one of “trapped in or between objects”.

In the same period, the construction industry recorded 1,438 industrial accidents that resulted in injuries.

The department had conducted 55,446 safety inspections at construction sites this year as of September, issuing 3,600 suspension or improvement notices with 1,852 prosecutions initiated.

Dr Poon Sun Wah, adjunct professor, Department of Real Estate and Construction, University of Hong Kong is of the opinion that government interventions to technology adoption to save worker’s lives are long overdue.

“In fact, such tools should be deployed even before construction starts. Drones can and should be used to view the actual site conditions,” Dr Sun Wah said.

“The information collected would be useful in assessing the risks of the intended operations and finding means to minimise the risks and even eliminate them.

“During construction, contractors should also use drones to monitor dangerous operations.

“The accident rate in Hong Kong’s construction sites has gone down substantially during the last decade as a result of collective efforts by all stakeholders. However, the rate of fatalities at around 20 per year remains consistently high. The imminent task should be to develop, encourage and use robots to replace humans in risky operations.”