Worker Falls to Death at Hyundai Construction Highway Project Site

On the first day of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act enforcement, which allows for the punishment of management officials when serious accidents such as worker fatalities occur, a construction site of an apartment in Gyeonggi-do on the 27th./Photo by Hyunmin Kim kimhyun81@

At a construction site for the Sejong~Pocheon Expressway Anseong~Guri section (in the Topyeong-dong area of Guri, Gyeonggi Province) being built by Hyundai Engineering & Construction, a worker fell to his death.

According to the government and construction industry sources on the 16th, around 11 a.m. that day, a worker named A, employed by a Hyundai Engineering & Construction subcontractor, fell about 3 meters from an opening at the bridge site to the ground below and died. Mr. A was a signalman guiding forklifts at the site, and it is presumed he died while trying to move a horizontal protective cover installed to prevent falls.

According to the site report, there was no instruction to move the horizontal protective cover that day, and the cover was reportedly fixed with concrete nails.

A Hyundai Engineering & Construction official stated, "It is understood that the deceased worker was working in a location other than his originally assigned work area and was working without instructions from the primary contractor when the accident occurred." It is usually explained that moving the horizontal protective cover requires accompaniment by a staff member responsible for safety management.

This construction site fatality is the second incident drawing attention to the application of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act since its enforcement on the 27th of last month, following the elevator fall accident at Yojin Construction in Pangyo. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport is also investigating the accident status through the Korea Infrastructure Safety Corporation.

A Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport official said, "We plan to investigate the exact cause of the accident and whether safety measures were insufficient."

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