◀ anchor ▶
The enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act is just one week away, and today, as always, there have been accidents where people die while working at the site.
A worker from a subcontractor who had only worked for 20 days at the POSCO Pohang Works got caught in a moving facility and lost his life once more.
The principle of stopping the machine to work was not followed.
Reporter Bae Hyun-jung covered the report.
◀ Report ▶
POSCO Pohang Works, Coke Plant 3
At around 9:40 am today, a 40-year-old subcontractor’s employee, Jang Mo, was trapped in a 13cm space between the wall and the charging car injecting coal into the coke oven and died.
[동료 직원/하청업체]
“The ambulance drivers said that they got caught and their chest, head, and head were sunk like this…”
At the time of the accident, Mr. Jang was working with his colleagues to put a thermal insulation cover on the pipe, but the charging car next door was operating without stopping.
[임대열/고용노동부 포항지청 과장]
“It took a total of 7 minutes to work, but I understand that each of them dispersed and worked as a team of two.”
In February of last year, following a series of industrial accidents sparked criticism, POSCO announced six emergency safety measures, which included “prohibiting maintenance work on operating facilities.”
[서효종/플랜트노조 사무국장]
“It was also confirmed at the site that this work device was in operation continuously between work for this fortnight, even though suspending work was set as the six safety measures.”
Zhang, a subcontractor worker who died, has been on the job for less than 20 days.
[이승열/플랜트노조 지부장]
“It’s been less than a month. It’s been a full month now. It’s dangerous for a full-fledged person, on the 3rd floor, the coke on the 3rd floor… The oven is open and the truck is just moving.”
POSCO Chairman Jeong-woo Choi apologized to the deceased and his family and said that he would do his best to take follow-up measures to prevent recurrence.
At POSCO, 24 workers have lost their lives due to industrial accidents in the past 4 years, and since 2017, they were punished as a major accident site for failing to report industrial accidents 5 times in 3 years from 2017.
This is Bae Hyun-jung from MBC News.
Video coverage: Jo Hyeon-geun (Pohang)
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