Window Cleaning: Leave It To Professionals Before You Kill Others

Widow killed as pensioner plunges to death: (Hong Kong) Two women died in a freak accident yesterday when one, a 74-year-old resident of a block of flats in Ma On Shan, fell on the other after she apparently slipped while cleaning a window in her 27th- floor home. In another twist to the tragedy, the woman below, 51-year-old Chan Kam- mui, lost her husband when a crane collapsed on him in 2007. Both Chan and the other woman, surnamed Lam, lived in Yiu Wing Building on Yiu On Estate.
Police canteen worker Chan was returning to her 11th-floor home from a visit to a street market and was only about a meter from the building's entrance and safety when struck. Chan's grieving family, including a son and a daughter in their 20s, had to go to the scene - where both women were certified dead - to identify their mother. They later burned incense and paper offerings there. A neighbor and colleague of Chan, who had talked with her an hour before she was killed, said: "She had just managed to get over the death of her husband. My heart goes out to her family."
Sha Tin district councillor Wong Mo-tai said Chan was the widow of Tam Shing, killed along with a cousin when a crane collapsed in Causeway Bay in July 2007. "We will check to see if her children need psychological counseling," Tam said. Secretary for Labour and Welfare Matthew Cheung Kin-chung said he had contacted Chan's family and the Social Welfare Department will provide financial assistance to the family. The department will also liaise with Lam's family. A department spokesman said officials had contacted Chan's family to counsel them and offer other assistance.
Psychiatrist Tsang Fan-kwong said counseling may be needed as trauma for relatives can be serious: "In most cases grief lessens after half a year. But if relatives are too young or too old, grief can turn into depression." There have been other incidents of people hit at ground level after falls by others. In 2008, a 42-year-old man jumped from the first floor of his girlfriend's home after being rejected, injuring two policemen. And in 2003, a 23-year-old woman who was seriously in debt jumped to her death from the 34th floor of her building. A pedestrian was injured on the shoulder.