In connection with an accident in which three patrons were electrocuted at a bathhouse in Sejong in 2023, the bathhouse owner received a suspended sentence of imprisonment.
According to the legal community on the 11th, Jang Jin-young, presiding judge of the Daejeon District Court Criminal Division 10, sentenced A, the owner of a bathhouse in Jochiwon, Sejong, who was indicted on charges of occupational negligence resulting in death, to one year in prison, suspended for two years.
The accident occurred on Dec. 24, 2023. At the time, three women in their 70s were electrocuted when electricity flowed through the hot tub in the women's bath on basement level one; they were taken to a hospital but all died.
A joint forensic examination by police and the National Forensic Service found that the insulator surrounding the motor wiring of the underwater massager was damaged, and as a result, current flowed along the piping connected to the motor into the hot tub, causing the accident. The motor in question was manufactured 27 years ago and had no leakage circuit breaker function.
Judge Jang said, "By failing to inspect or replace the aged underwater massager motor for nine years, despite the high risk of electric leakage and electrocution, you neglected it and caused serious loss of life."
A was found to have neglected inspections of aging equipment after acquiring the bathhouse in 2015. The defense argued that the period of use of the underwater massager was unclear and that it was difficult to predict damage to the insulator, seeking an acquittal, but the court did not accept the claim.