3 people buried due to soil collapse at a stone quarry in Yangju, Gyeonggi... rescue difficulty

Today (29th), the first day of the Lunar New Year holiday, three workers were buried in the soil at the Sampyo Industrial Stone quarry in Yangju, Gyeonggi Province, and rescue teams are working to rescue them.

According to the Gyeonggi Yangju Police Station and the fire department, at 10:08 a.m. today, a report was received that three workers were buried as the soil collapsed while collecting bones at Sampyo Industrial Yangju Seoksan, Dohari, Eunhyeon-myeon, Yangju-si.

Those buried were male workers in their 50s or older, whether or not they were alive or dead.

It is presumed that the accident occurred when the soil collapsed during the drilling of a hole for the blasting operation.

One in three workers is believed to have been inside the excavator, but it is known that the other two are most likely buried naked.

The amount of collapsed soil was about 300,000 ㎤ (approximately 20 m in height), so five excavators were mobilized for the rescue operation, but the rescue operation is experiencing difficulties.

Currently, one 119 rescue dog, about 50 personnel, and about 20 equipment are carrying out rescue operations.

A police official said, "The amount of collapsed soil is huge, so the rescue operation may take more than half a day." "We will focus on the rescue first and then investigate the exact circumstances of the accident."

Sampyo Industrial, famous as a ramicon company, mainly operates ramicon factories and collects aggregates.

Meanwhile, attention is focused on this law, which is to punish the person in charge of management in cases where one or more workers die at an industrial site as an accident that is expected to cause casualties occurs just two days after the Act on Punishment of Serious Accidents went into effect.

According to the Serious Accidents Punishment Act, if an employee dies in a workplace with 50 or more full-time workers, the employer or manager may be sentenced to imprisonment for at least one year or a fine of not more than KRW 1 billion, or a fine of not more than KRW 5 billion to a corporation.