The Supreme Court ruled that if a subcontractor's worker died because a dump truck driver mishandled the controls during work, the head of the corporations the worker belonged to cannot be punished for violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.
The Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Park Young-jae) said on the 27th that it affirmed the lower court ruling from on the 16th acquitting subcontractor head A, who was indicted on charges of violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act (industrial accident causing death).
SK Multyutility (SKMU) operates a thermal power plant in Nam-gu, Ulsan. Around 12:10 p.m. on Dec. 20, 2022, the dump truck's bed tipped to the side, spilling the coal it was carrying, and subcontracted worker B, 63, who was handling coal intake, was buried. B died about an hour after the accident.
The dump truck involved in the fatal accident was loaded with 38 tons of coal, exceeding the maximum load of 25.65 tons. Driver C knew worker B was working in a dangerous location but did not tell B to evacuate.
C then raised the bed to unload the coal without opening the rear gate of the bed. Because of this, the hydraulic cylinder could not withstand the weight of the overloaded coal, and the bed toppled, causing the accident.
Prosecutors indicted A on charges of violating the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, saying A had been told that cargo trucks could tip over or coal could spill during unloading in the coal intake area but failed to take necessary measures.
The first trial acquitted A. The first-instance panel said, "The most direct cause of the fatal accident was the driver's mishandling in lifting the bed without opening the rear gate," adding, "Imputing responsibility to the defendant even for a fatal accident caused by the driver's mishandling is excessively unfair relative to the degree of the defendant's illegality (negligence)."
The court also said, "A notice reading 'Strictly no entry during unloading' was posted on the wall at the scene," and found, "The victim should have been outside when the dump truck came in to unload coal, but remained in place to fix a transport equipment issue, which was a mistake."
The appeals court dismissed the prosecutor's appeal. The appellate panel said, "When the driver operates the (dump truck) bed's rear (gate) open-close switch, a buzzer sounds repeatedly, and if the bed is raised while closed, the vehicle shakes, which an ordinary dump truck driver could perceive," adding, "It appears to have been an accident that even workers in the same industry could not easily foresee."
The Supreme Court dismissed the prosecutor's appeal, finding no misapprehension of law in the lower court's judgment.
Dump truck driver C was sentenced in the first trial to eight months in prison, suspended for work-related negligent homicide. D, the head of C's company and the dump truck's effective owner, was sentenced in the first trial to six months in prison for violating the Occupational Safety and Health Act and for work-related negligent homicide. D had the dump truck loaded with coal beyond its maximum capacity and, contrary to the work plan, failed to station a work supervisor on site to prevent risks. As C, D, and prosecutors did not appeal, the rulings were finalized as is.
SK Multyutility, the plant operator, was fined 5 million won in the first trial, and the Supreme Court affirmed the sentence after the appeal.