“A visit to a construction site to prevent major accidents”

KOSHA checked the state of safety and health in major construction sites in the capital area

and discussed measures to reduce accidents with ten major construction managers.

May 17, 2014

KOSHA (headed by President Baek- Hun-ki) came forward to find a solution to prevent major accidents in construction sites.

Baek Hun-ki, president of KOSHA and other participants visited a construction site for high-speed railway between Suseo and Pyeongtaek, checked the condition of safety and health and had a meeting with managers of ten major construction sites in the capital area.

The ten major construction sites are construction sites of metropolitan high-speed railway between Suseo and Peoyngtaek, Pangyo complex shopping mall, new logistics center, Wirye apartment, road between Seongnam and Janghowon, double track railway from Seongnam to Yeoju, etc.

The purpose of the visit was to share the state of growing construction accidents with safety managers and gather opinions about major accident prevention measures from the construction sites.

According to statistics of occupational accidents, the total number of victims of occupational accidents on construction sites was 23,600, 251 more than last year. Among them, the number of fatalities increased by 71 to 567 year on year.

* The number of victims of construction occupational accidents was 23,349. Among them, the number of fatalities was 496 in 2012.

KOSHA visited the underground tunnel excavation site for metropolitan high-speed railway between Suseo and Peoyngtaek and checked its safety system. After the visit, a meeting was held to check the state of safety and health system, analyze the cause of accidents at construction sites and discuss countermeasures for them.

In the meeting, the construction managers requested ‘expanding risk assessment consulting for construction sites,’ ‘improving the basic safety and health education system for construction workers,’ ‘assessing occupational accident prevention activities in more effective way’ and ‘measures to improve safety awareness of construction companies.’

On the other hand, before the meeting, there were presentations of best practices and examples of failure for safety management activities in construction sites. The construction managers reaffirmed their determination to eradicate major accidents in construction sites by understanding and improving risk factors of workplaces, conducting thorough safety education, and reinforcing safety management in compliance with safety manuals and work procedures.

Baek Hun-ki, President of KOSHA said, “Construction work requires special attention by following work procedures and basic safety rules because there are many different workers including subcontractors’ workers at each level of construction.” “We will do our utmost to reflect the voices from the construction sites in the accident prevention project,” he added.