Police Focus Investigation on Possibility of Human Error in Gokseong Landslide

Gokseong Landslide Road Construction Site Photo by Yonhap News

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Kim Chunsu] Regarding the landslide in Gokseong, where there is a debate over whether it was caused by natural disaster or human error, the police appear to be leaning towards human error.

The police are investigating the landslide accident in Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do, where five people died, and are focusing their investigation on the possibility that the landslide was caused by human error related to the expansion construction of National Road No. 15.

According to the Gokseong Police Station on the 31st, the police have booked four people related to the construction company and the supervision company on charges of failing to take proper safety measures at the National Road No. 15 expansion construction site (including professional negligence resulting in death).

The police believe that despite the expectation of heavy rain, proper safety measures were not taken to prevent rainwater from flowing into the buried soil in the valley or the cut slopes for road expansion, or to prevent soil from sliding down.

Additionally, the accident site is a location where reinforcement work was carried out after road damage caused by Typhoon "Megi" in August 2004, but it is reported that this information was not reflected in the design and construction even though construction was carried out at the same site.

Regarding this, the Jeollanam-do Road Management Office reportedly explained that they did not receive related materials when the road management authority was transferred from Iksan National Land Management Office in 2008.

The police plan to expand the investigation to determine whether there were design or construction defects due to missing materials and whether such defects led to the landslide.

Earlier, on the 7th of this month at 8:29 p.m., soil collapsed from the mountain behind a village in Osan-myeon, Gokseong-gun, Jeollanam-do, burying five houses and resulting in the deaths of five residents.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.