Frequent Major Accidents at Quarry Prompt 'Industrial Accident Risk Alert'... Comprehensive Inspection Conducted

Accident Occurs in Changwon Following Sampyo Industrial Quarry
Government Issues Risk Alert and Conducts Nationwide Inspection Today
Unannounced Inspections of Poor-Quality Companies... Focused Management in March with Frequent Accidents

On the 3rd, joint inspection officials are moving to the site at Sampyo Industrial Yangju Branch in Eunhyeon-myeon, Yangju-si, Gyeonggi-do. [Image source=Yonhap News]

The government has recently issued an 'Industrial Accident Risk Warning' for quarries where multiple casualties have occurred due to successive collapses and explosions, and has begun a comprehensive inspection to verify the implementation of safety measures. If a company is judged to be a 'poor company' with inadequate compliance with safety and health obligations under the Serious Accident Punishment Act, surprise inspections will be conducted and focused management will be implemented.

On the 9th, the Ministry of Employment and Labor announced that on the occasion of 'Field Inspection Day,' it is conducting a comprehensive inspection of the implementation of three major safety measures targeting quarries, stone product and cement manufacturing industries, and construction waste disposal industries. Although quarries were not originally included in the field inspection targets, they were added to the investigation list following a soil collapse accident at the Sampo Industry quarry in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province on the 29th of last month, which resulted in the deaths of three workers, and an explosion during blasting work at a Changwon quarry on the 3rd that injured four people, among other serious accidents.

In fact, accidents involving worker casualties at quarries have been continuous. Last year, numerous accidents occurred including excavator and forklift falls due to ground collapse and worker injuries during rock blasting operations. The Ministry of Employment and Labor has distributed self-inspection checklists for safe operations and repeated accident cases related to quarry work to each quarry, and plans to encourage self-inspections while conducting patrol inspections for the time being.

The Ministry of Employment and Labor plans to intensively manage hazardous workplaces until next month, considering that construction site accidents frequently occur from February to March. An analysis of fatal accidents over the past three years (2019?2021) shows that after the Lunar New Year holiday ends and production activities begin in earnest, fatal accidents at construction sites gradually increase.

In particular, fatal industrial accidents caused by falls and entrapments surged in all industries in March compared to February. According to the fall accident status over the past three years, the number increased from 49 in February to 89 in March, an 81.6 percentage point rise, and total accidents increased from 140 in February to 208 in March, a 48.5 percentage point increase. The Ministry of Employment and Labor has also sent official letters to each workplace urging them to devote full efforts to accident prevention activities under the Serious Accident Punishment Act, including eliminating at least the minimum hazardous and dangerous factors on site.

The Ministry also plans to conduct surprise inspections in cooperation with the police for blasting operations involving explosives, which can cause multiple casualties. Kwon Ki-seop, Director of the Occupational Safety and Health Headquarters at the Ministry of Employment and Labor, emphasized, "Looking at the recent series of large-scale accidents such as collapses and explosions, it seems that safety has not yet been established as the highest management goal at the sites, nor has a safety culture that properly practices this been established." He added, "It is important for management officials to directly experience and verify the safety situation."

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