Accident occurred during formwork removal beneath temporary bridge

Ministry of Employment and Labor orders work stoppage, launches probe into serious accident law violations

Firefighters rescue a worker in his 50s buried under collapsed soil at a construction site in Haknam-ri, Onsan-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, on Friday morning. [Ulsan Fire Department]
Firefighters rescue a worker in his 50s buried under collapsed soil at a construction site in Haknam-ri, Onsan-eup, Ulju-gun, Ulsan, on Friday morning. [Ulsan Fire Department]

A worker in his 50s was killed Friday after a soil collapse at a major petrochemical construction site in Ulju-gun, Ulsan. The Ministry of Employment and Labor issued a work-stoppage order for some operations at the site and launched an investigation into possible violations of the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

The Ulsan Fire Department, Ulju Police Station and the Ministry of Employment and Labor said authorities received a report at around 10:01 a.m. Friday that a person had been buried under rocks at the S-Oil Shaheen Project Package-1 construction site inside the Onsan National Industrial Complex in Ulju-gun, Ulsan.

The victim, identified by his surname initial A, 54, was an employee of a general contractor subcontracted by Hyundai E&C. He was transported to a hospital in cardiac arrest after being buried under a pile of concrete and was later pronounced dead.

At the time of the accident, A was removing formwork in a space beneath a temporary bridge installed at the site. The ministry believes a roughly one-ton mass of soil broke loose from a slope in that space and fell on him.

The ministry immediately issued a work-stoppage order covering all support-structure installation work at the Package-1 site. Labor inspectors were also dispatched to the scene to determine whether the Serious Accidents Punishment Act and the Occupational Safety and Health Act had been violated.

Police and fire authorities are also investigating the exact cause of the collapse and whether proper safety measures were in place. Safety management by work process and control of work zones are expected to be key issues, as large plant construction sites typically involve multiple subcontractors working simultaneously.

The Shaheen Project, where the accident occurred, is a large-scale petrochemical project S-Oil is developing on an approximately 880,000-square-meter site in the Onsan National Industrial Complex in Ulju-gun, Ulsan, at a total cost of 9.26 trillion won ($5.99 billion). Construction began in March 2023, and mechanical completion had been expected by the end of this month.


kwater@heraldcorp.com