A worker in his 60s was killed when a steel H-beam toppled over at a commercial building construction site in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.
According to police and fire authorities on the 30th, the H-beam fell at about 9:34 a.m. that day while being raised with an excavator at a site for a new commercial building inside an apartment complex in Gorim-dong, Cheoin-gu, Yongin.
The beam crushed a man in his 60s, identified only as A, who was doing welding work on the ground as an employee of a subcontractor. He was taken to a hospital in cardiac arrest but later died.
Police said they will question site officials to determine exactly why the beam fell and whether safety rules were followed. After completing a preliminary investigation, they plan to transfer the case from the Yongin Dongbu Police Station to the serious industrial accident investigation team of the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.
Labor authorities also ordered work at the site suspended immediately after the accident and are examining whether the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Serious Accidents Punishment Act were violated.
"We will investigate site officials on how the H-beam fell and whether safety rules were followed, and then decide whether to book anyone in connection with the case," a police official said.
