[Actually] "Young people's lives are like fallen leaves"... How much has changed before and after Kim Yong-gyun?

On the 6th, Hong Jeong-woon, a specialized high school student in Yeosu, Jeollanam-do, died.

I was in the field training to dive into the sea and clean a yacht.

I couldn't unfasten the waist belt with the 12kg lead, and it sank underneath. 

Hong didn't even have a diving license, and he couldn't swim properly because he was afraid of water.

The practice plan stated that Hong's mission was to assist on board and serve customers.

Diving was not a practice subject.

Four days after the accident, it was announced that the company had resumed operation, which caused outrage.

On the 27th of last month, a man in his 20s while cleaning the exterior wall of an apartment in Incheon fell from a height of 15 floors and died.

It was my first day of work.

It is known that the safety equipment was not installed properly.

Just in time, the day before the accident, it was reported that the son of Kwak Sang-do had received a severance pay of 5 billion won from Hwacheon Daeyu.

At one university, a big poster was posted saying, "While someone was taking 5 billion won, young people either died on their first day of work or suffered from economic hardship and died alone."

After the death of the late Kim Yong-gyun in December 2019, our society was outraged and the law was revised.

But seeing this kind of thinking continues, the question arises whether our society is really getting better.

We fact-checked how much has changed before and after Kim Yong-gyun's death through 'Industrial Accident Statistics' of the Korea Occupational Safety and Health Agency.

On December 10, 2018, the late Kim Yong-gyun was killed at the Taean Thermal Power Plant in South Chungcheong Province.

The late Kim Yong-gyun died on December 10, 2018 in an accident at the Taean Thermal Power Plant in South Chungcheong Province.

Mr. Kim was a contractor employee.

Controversy arose over 'outsourcing of risk'.

On the 27th of the same month, the so-called 'Kim Yong-gyun Act', an amendment to the Occupational Safety and Health Act, which strengthened safety regulations in the wake of the disaster, was passed.

However, there was criticism that it was not a law that placed great restrictions on passing off risky work, but rather the 'Kim Yong-gyun Act without Kim Yong-gyun'.

Considering Kim's sacrifice in December 2018 and the time the law was enacted, the statistical reference point was set as January 1, 2019.

The latest published industrial accident statistics are up to June 2021.

Based on the latest statistics from January, 2019, 2 years and 6 months from June to last June, 2 years and 6 months from July 2016 to December 2018, based on the same period, the number of workers who lost their lives or were injured in accidents We compared statistics.

First, let's compare the total number of deaths.

Occupational disease deaths were excluded.

Only cases of sudden death from industrial sites such as falls, jamming or bumping were counted separately.

Two years and six months before Kim Yong-Kyun, 2,403 people died, and two years and six months after that, 2,211 people died.

Calculating by one day, before Kim Yong-Kyun, 2.6 people died per day, and after that, 2.4 people died per day.

After Kim Yong-gyun, it was found that it decreased by about 8% compared to before.

Causes of death were also looked at.

Before and after Kim Yong-gyun, the causes of death are almost the same in the order of falling, jamming, and collision.

Falls are overwhelming.

It has been analyzed that the reason for this is that there are many fall accidents at construction sites.

The death toll from the fall was 927 before Kim Yong-gyun, and 885 after that.

Every day, one person is killed in a fall.

We also looked at each generation. 

The older you get, the more deaths you have.

The death of young workers is often an issue, but the elderly are bound to be more vulnerable to safety accidents.

We also summarized the trends in the number of workers who died in accidents at industrial sites over the past five years.

Anyway, after Kim Yong-gyun, the number of deaths decreased by 8% compared to before.

However, when we compared 'injured people' as a standard, it was found that there was an increase.

Deaths decreased by 8%, but injuries increased by 9.7%.

A bouquet of flowers placed by apartment residents in memory of a young man who died while cleaning the windows.

The analysis was also based on youth, such as Hong Jeong-woon, who died in Yeosu, and a man in his 20s who died in an apartment in Incheon.

It is a case of death or injury based on young people in their teens and 20s.

After Kim Yong-gyun, the death rate among young people has decreased by nearly 12% compared to before.

The overall reduction rate is about 8%, which is much lower. 

However, the number of young people injured has increased again.

It increased by 17%.

That's nearly double the overall increase in injured people at 9.7%.

The fact that the number of deaths among young people is decreasing does not necessarily mean that working conditions are improving.

Memorials to the late Hong Jeong-woon, who lost his life during field training in Yeosu.

The purpose of this fact check is to show the statistics analyzed by our fact-finding team as they are.

Various interpretations of this statistic are possible.

Some reporters can write an optimistic sentence saying, "The death rate has been decreasing since Kim Yong-gyun," while another reporter can make a pessimistic analysis saying, "The death rate has decreased, but injuries are increasing again."

Interpretations may vary depending on the telescope viewing the matter. 

However, what is clear is that, before or after Kim Yong-gyun, in a form like a decalcomania - like the sentence of writer Kim Hoon "Life is like a fallen leaf" - about 5 people are dying every two days.

After Kim Yong-gyun, I gained sympathy and support for the reality of young workers, and although the system has been overhauled whether it is overflowing or lacking, this is probably the reason why our society still has tasks to solve.

With most of the news being sucked into election issues ahead of next year's big election, I just hope that politics will pay more attention to these deaths. 

In fact, the team looked at the so-called 'fatal rate of accidents per 100,000 population' submitted by the International Labor Organization (ILO) from 38 countries of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Among OECD countries, Korea had 4-5 cases. .

It is difficult to rank accurately because the counting method differs by country, but among the OECD countries, Colombia, Mexico, Turkey, and the United States are similar or more similar to Korea.