언론사

Industrial accidents.

Cheongdae Times Division of Culture Affairs Senior Reporter Yoon-Ji Bae

-What is an industrial accident.

The definition of an industrial accident means ‘disasters such as injury, illness, disability or death of workers due to work, accidents at industrial site are the most common types of industrial accidents. The number of industrial accidents in Korea ins decreasing very slowly every year.

Deaths from industrial accidents also decreased slightly. However, industrial accidents caused 850 deaths in 2019, 880 deaths in 2020, which increased slightly last years. Major causes of death in industrial accidents include falling, hitting by object, crushed by a falling object, machine constriction, turn over accident.

In addition, the construction industry has the highest proportion in industrial accident occupation of death. Industrial accidents are occurring steadily in our society. We are going to find out what kind of industrial accidents occur this year and what efforts are needed to prevent this accident.

-Industrial Accident Deaths This Year.

There are a total of 15 deaths caused by industrial accidents form mid-April to mid-May this year.

On April 21, a worker fell off the end of a work scaffolding while taking pieces off another scaffolding at the site of the repair of a national highway facility in Sejong. And he passed away. On the same day, while loading the remaining materials after the bridge restoration work with an excavator, the bar that tied up the concrete was cut off and hit the worker. This worker was transferred to Asan-Hospital and died during treatment.

On April 22, Lee seon-ho, who was working at the new container terminal at Pyeongtaek Port, and died when he hit his head on a 300kg container.

On April 23, during a test run of pressure container in Busan, the worker died by hitting the chest on the device.

On April 24, a field manager of a small tower crane rental company who was working to raise the height of the small tower crane fell and died at an apartment construction place in Incheon.

On the same day, a fire broke out at the construction place of new flat in Namyang-ju. one person died and 18 people were injured in this accident.

On April 25, a worker working at a factory in Gyeongju was crushed by a 30-ton structure. On April 26, a worker died because he hit a dump truck while working on a road extension pavement at Gyeongbu highway.

On April 29, a worker crushed by a rock at the construction site of the highway tunnel in Jeonju, He was transferred to a hospital but died while receiving treatment.

On April 30, a man who was working on a signboard at a mall in Incheon, was electrocuted by high-voltage wire and died during treatment.

On May 2, a worker who was working on the demolition of the building was buried and he was founded dead.

On May 3, a worker who was installing scaffolding for H-beam reinforcement work at the Daegu auto plant extension died because he was sliding down 10 meters from the pipe.

On the same day, workers who were unloading coal at the Gwangyang Transportation storage stenosed on the bulldozer blade edge, one person was dead, another person was had seriously injury.

On Parents' Day, May 8th, a subcontractor worker died in a crash while working on welding in Hyundai Heavy Industries. Also, on the same day, an employee of Hyundai steel Mill was crushed while inspecting the machine without turning it off.

Twelve construction workers and three others died in this month accidents. Also, the causes of death were being crushed something, hit by objects, and slide down.

-Why do these accidents happen again and again?

These industrial accidents are repeated continuously. That are statistically more than 90%. Experts said that the reason for repeated industrial accidents is a lack of safety awareness and laws. In the construction industries currently, many industrial accidents occur. Safety equipment such as safety nets, straps has been found to be poorly installed at some field.

In addition, in the case of Pyeongtaek port, the lack of awareness and management of the site and safety, such as the absence of safety managers, work supervisors, and signal man was confirmed. Some expert said that light punishment for the contracting company is the cause of the high recidivism rate (97%).

Generally, the largest rate of punishment resulting in death of industrial accident is a fine, an average amount of 4 million won. And statistically, only 4% of deaths of industrial accidents are formally prosecuted. Light punishment and complacent safety awareness of business workers or employers can be attributed to the increase in the occurrence of death of industrial accidents.

-Preventinng recurrence.

To reduce industrial accidents, the National Assembly enacted the Serious Accident Punishment Act. serious accident punishment Act is scheduled to take effect as of January 26, 2022.

This law includes strengthening punishment for contracting companies in the industrial accidents if an employee dies without taking measures to prevent safety and health risk, the management or contracting company will be punished with a prison term of at least one year or a fine up to 1 billion won.

Some experts say this law is an over-suppression of contracting company or owners. However, some experts say that this law came from frequent industrial accidents because of many outsourcing projects and many owners are indifferent to prevent industrial accident. To reduce the occurrence of industrial accidents, training is necessary for employee’s safety awareness.

It is also necessary to educate and improve awareness of the importance of safety rules that must be followed in the field. in addition, safety management systems should be properly installed at the field, including basic safety equipment and field manager by the low. it will also be necessary need for corporate culture that prioritizes workers safety rather than speed of work.