21.08.2025

Dual platform fall

Two men fell from a work platform located on a pontoon for construction work being carried out at the Europa Terminal in Antwerp, Belgium, on Tuesday morning.

They are apparently employees of the Terminal, and suffered injuries to their legs, but not life threatening ones. They ended up in the water but were able to reach and hold on to the quay side buffer/bump pads until they could be rescued.

What we don’t know yet is whether they were wearing an attached harness or not. The advice is not to attach a harness when working over water. In this case they may have followed this advice or were lucky enough that the platform to which they might have been attached did not go below water level.

The emergency services said: “We were called to the incident at 11:20 on Tuesday August 19th to rescue two men who had been injured after a platform on a pontoon had overturned.”

The Port of Antwerp/Brugges added: “An industrial accident occurred at the Europa Terminal site in the Port of Antwerp on the morning of 19 August. A lifting platform, positioned on a pontoon, overturned. Two employees of the contractor TM Europaterminal ended up in the water. Both sustained injuries to their lower limbs, but their lives were never in danger. They were stabilised on-site by emergency services and then taken to the hospital.”

“The precise circumstances and causes of the accident are being investigated. Additional information will be released as soon as it becomes available.”