"Catch Fatal Accidents!" Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency Conducts Surprise Safety Inspections at 24,000 Hazardous Sites Nationwide

Launch of 'Patrol On-Site Inspection' Operation to Eliminate Frequent Risk Factors in Fall and Crushing Fatal Accidents

The Safety and Health Agency's patrol inspection team is conducting an unannounced safety inspection at a construction site. [Image source=Safety and Health Agency]

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Kim Yong-woo] To prevent fatal accidents at industrial sites, a ‘surprise safety inspection’ was conducted at more than 20,000 workplaces nationwide.

The Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency (Chairman Park Doo-yong) announced on the 24th that it launched a project to prevent on-site fatal accidents and conducted surprise safety inspections at approximately 24,000 workplaces nationwide.

The agency carried out ‘patrol on-site inspections’ focusing on compliance with safety measures against key hazards such as falls and entrapment in small and medium-sized workplaces, correcting 25,802 fatal accident risk factors by April this year.

The agency monitored the results of risk improvement measures at workplaces and requested the Ministry of Employment and Labor to supervise 917 sites (as of the end of April) that neglected risks such as refusal of inspection or failure to implement improvements.

At some workplaces, hazardous work was suspended, and judicial actions were taken against violations.

In the construction industry, surprise visits were made to 16,853 sites, and 17,700 risk factors were pointed out at 7,951 of these sites.

The most common risk factors requiring improvement were fall hazards (82.8%), such as the absence of safety railings and work platforms on stairs, openings, and scaffolding.

In the manufacturing industry, 7,173 workplaces were inspected, and 8,102 risk factors were identified at 3,937 of these workplaces.

The most frequent risk was entrapment hazards (36.3%) due to missing protective covers and devices on dangerous equipment such as conveyors, presses, and crushers. Fall hazards (23.1%) were also noted, including the absence of safety railings at elevated equipment locations and poor ladder safety measures.

The agency conducted ‘patrol on-site inspections’ by making surprise visits to small and medium-sized workplaces to eradicate major accident risk factors, focusing on compliance with the three major safety measures (prevention of fall and entrapment hazards, mandatory use of essential personal protective equipment, etc.).

This year, the number of inspections was increased compared to last year (from 60,000 to 70,000), and patrol-dedicated vehicles were expanded and deployed to frontline institutions (from 108 to 404 vehicles), strengthening the project further. Surprise inspections will continue in June as well.

Park Doo-yong, Chairman of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency, said, “To reduce workplace fatal accidents, key risk factors such as falls in construction sites and entrapment in manufacturing must be improved,” adding, “The agency will focus all its capabilities on protecting workers’ lives by strengthening patrol on-site inspections.”

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