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As you can see, once an accident occurs in a tower crane, people are often killed or injured.

In particular, there are frequent accidents of small cranes under 3 tons, and three people died this year alone.

So when the government inspected about 600 small cranes, nearly 4,000 points were found, including defects.



Reporter Park Jae-hyun reported whether it is a problem that takes human life, and whether it is well managed.



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In November of last year, in Busan, the head of a tower crane was bent backwards, and then two fell.



A broken crane hit the road near the line with vehicles lined up, and it almost inflicted serious human damage.



[Site witness: It came out, but it fell.

I almost died in surprise.]



As a result of an investigation by the Transportation Safety Authority, the accident was due to a defective crane.



The T-shaped tower crane was arbitrarily modified and used in an L-shaped shape, but the problem was that the crane head and body connection parts were 4 screws short of the design.



In February, a tower crane fell down in Yongsan, Seoul, and a worker working underneath it was killed.



Immediately after the accident, it was presumed that the crane support line was loosened and it was an accident, but it was revealed as a mechanical defect in close investigation.



All the lines that support the tower crane are made of iron core, but they are made of weak fibers that support some of the most important lines that support the entire tower crane.



The embarrassing thing is that the Busan Cranes were judged to be suitable one month before the accident, and the Seoul Yongsan Cranes were all judged suitable at the regular inspection 5 months before the accident.



There have been about 40 cranes in accidents since 2018, and all of them were found to be suitable in the inspection we received when installing them.



[Company officials: (2~3 hours inspection) There are parts that can be seen and parts that are not.

There are many bolts.

However, since it is a structure, there are areas that cover it.] As the



accident continued, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it would inspect 1,200 small cranes installed or planned to be installed at construction sites nationwide in January this year.



In the inspection, dangerous elements were identified everywhere, even at a glance.



There were screws in the crane support part, and there were places where the support was not fastened at all, or it was tightly tied with wire.



[Director Wonhee Lee/Korea Tower Lane Coordinator Labor Union: It is not signed correctly.

Is the space floating?

When it receives strength, it sticks, and when it turns in reverse, it falls...

.]



There are many places where the screws are not tightened properly and move little by little.



[Director Wonhee Lee/Korea Tower Lane Pilot Labor Union: It is only said that he signed the document without looking at the real thing.

It was also recognized by each institution that was actually tested.

How did you get this tested?

They also don't understand.]



After examining 594 cranes, nearly 4,000 points were found.



Among them, 141 cranes received more than accusations, fines, and penalties.



The problem is that only half of the 1,200 cranes we decided to look at were inspected and finished.



Due to Corona 19, heat waves, and investigator fatigue, the other 600 cranes were not inspected after the initial inspection was completed.



There was no answer to the protest of the union that participated in the prosecution.



The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said that there is no additional inspection plan, saying that the inspection was mainly conducted on cranes installed in the construction site due to the characteristics of small cranes that were installed and removed from time to time.



[Park Sang-hyuk/Deocratic Democratic Party Member (National Land Committee): There are a number of tower crane accidents that have been judged appropriate.

It has been said a lot of carelessness, but the problem is that there is a structural defect...

.] The



registration of seven cranes with manufacturing defects found in a series of tower crane accidents was canceled, and a decision was made to recall and discontinue sales of 270 units.



The small crane accident happened again today.

The crane structure was bent and almost collapsed.



If overhaul of the remaining 600 units that have not been completed even after the government has professed to be inspected is not resumed, the crane accident is likely to be repeated again.



(Video coverage: Kim Myung-gu · Gong Jin-gu, video editing: Lee Seung-jin, VJ: Lee Jun-young, material provided by: Korea Federation of Trade Unions Tower Crane Pilots' Union)  



▶ He was killed by a 200t crane…

"There was no on-site safety manager"