Posted on 05 Apr 2015
A Hyundai Steel worker died after he fell into a molten
metal distributor in Incheon, according to the Incheon Jungbu Police Station,
Sunday.
The 43-year-old man, surnamed Lee fell into the 1,500–2,000 degrees Celsius
distributer from a 2.5 meter high tower last week, an officer said.
A co-worker was quoted as telling the police, "We called the police as
soon as Lee fell into the furnace, but by the time the fire fighters and the
police got here, it was too late."
Parts of the victim's body have been retrieved.
"The accident seems to have happened at a continuous casting machine,
which is used to cool molten metal and redirect it," said an official at
Hyundai Steel.
Police are investigating the exact cause of the incident by examining
closed-circuit television records at the facility.
They are also questioning officials about possible dereliction of duty and why
the company didn't have safety guardrails.
Because the police haven't definitively uncovered the cause of the incident,
the company has been withholding an official apology to victim's family.
The Hyundai Steel branch of the Korean Metal Workers' Union (KMWU) criticized
the company for not offering an apology.
The KMWU said it had found several factors it believes that caused the death,
blaming the company for not having proper safety measures.
The lack of a guardrail plus dispersed 1-3 millimeter steel balls, steel powder
and scattered hoses and pipes at the site exposed workers to the risk of
tripping over, the union said.
"Each year Hyundai Steel loses five employees on average to industrial
accidents. I think this requires group-wide comprehensive measures to prevent
this kind of incident," said Park Sae-min, a KMWU official.
Hyundai Steel says it will release a statement after the police confirm the
cause of Lee's death.
Since 2012, a total of 18 workers have lost their lives due to industrial
accidents at the company.
In 2012, a demolition worker died after a building structure collapsed, while
four others died either from falls or electrocution.
In 2013, ten people were killed, including six who suffocated in two separate
cases of fatal gas leaks at the company's Dangjin mill. Following the repeated
accidents, Hyundai Steel's parent Hyundai Motor Group CEO Chung Mong-koo
increased the safety budget to 500 billion won in February 2014.
Despite this, two people lost their lives at the work place last year, while
one was killed under a cement mixer this January prior to the latest incident.
