Yuta Maju Sdn Bhd (YMSB) pleaded guilty to two charges but claimed trial on another charge that involved technicalities.

The paired road project was in the news for the wrong reasons in 2018 when a crane operator lost control and dropped 14 beams into a valley and a landslide on a cut hill saw nine people buried alive.

The landslide occurred at the site of an elevated road project, costing RM530 million, by the Penang Island City Council and YMSB near Air Itam.

All three charges were under the Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) Act 1994.

In the first charge, YMSB was accused of not having proper work safety procedures in using a crane and causing beams to fall off a cliff.

In the second charge, the company is said to have failed to appoint a competent OSH officer on site.

YMSB’s director Osmera Mamat pleaded guilty and was fined RM20,000 and RM2,000 for the first and second charges respectively. Judge Mazdi Abdul Hamid presided over the case.

In asking for a lower fine, the company’s lawyer Kanesh Sundrum said the crane mishap had occurred due to strong winds at the time.

Deputy public prosecutor Mohd Najib Anuar urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence as a lesson to other contractors.

Separately, but in the same court, YMSB’s project manager Lai Sin Kian was also charged for another OSH violation at the Bukit Kukus site.

The violation was related to the failure to come up with engineering calculations for backfill works, which resulted in a fatal landslide on Oct 19, 2018.

The violation is under Section 15(1) of the OSH Act 1994. Kanesh then requested a different court date to get further instructions from his client.

The court then set Feb 19 after no objections were received from DPP Norliza Abu Othman.