As the government announced a comprehensive plan for labor safety on 15th, it turned out that multiple fatal accidents occurred not only at private builders but also at government-funded projects where public institutions such as corporations and agencies are the clients. More than 90 people have died over the past four years, according to the findings.
According to data from the Construction Safety Management Integrated Network (CSI) submitted by Rep. Moon Jin-seok of the Democratic Party of Korea (National Assembly Land Infrastructure and Transport Committee) from the Korea Authority of Land & Infrastructure Safety (KALIS) on 16th, a total of 90 fatal construction accidents occurred at worksites of the top 10 ordering agencies for fatal accidents over the past four years (2021–2024), and 92 people died in these accidents.
The ordering agency with the most fatal accidents was the Korea Land & Housing Corporation (LH), with a total of 18 incidents. It was followed by ▲ Korea Expressway Corporation (11) ▲ Korea Rural Community Corporation (KRC) · Defense Facilities Headquarters · Seoul City (9 each) ▲ Korea National Railway (8) ▲ Incheon City (6) ▲ Korea Water Resources Corporation (K-water) · Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education · Busan Regional Land Management Office · Busan Regional Land Management Office · Daejeon Regional Land Management Office (5 each).
By year, there were ▲ 27 incidents in 2021 ▲ 21 in 2022 ▲ 23 in 2023 ▲ 19 in 2024. LH, which often handles wide construction zones and large-scale projects, had 9 incidents in 2021, 2 in 2022, 4 in 2023, and 3 in 2024, recording the most annual fatalities except in 2022. In projects ordered by the Korea Expressway Corporation, which ranked second, there were 4 incidents in 2021, 3 in 2022, 3 in 2023, and 1 in 2024.
Rep. Moon said, "As the responsibility of the ordering party is increasingly emphasized, ordering agencies must also approach thorough project management with a sense of responsibility," and added, "In particular, LH and the Korea Expressway Corporation have recurring fatal accidents, so there is a need for a comprehensive review of whether the project period and expense were appropriate."
In the measures announced the previous day, the government unveiled regulations on private corporations, including imposing a penalty surcharge of up to 5% of operating profit on companies with repeated industrial accidents. The plan also included assigning accident-prevention responsibility to ordering parties, including the public sector, by mandating guarantees of appropriate construction costs and project periods and preparing grounds for dismissing the heads of public institutions when serious accidents occur.