Company CEO sentenced to 2 years for worker's death by 1.6-ton coil

The CEO of an auto parts company has been sentenced to two years in prison following a fatal workplace accident. A worker died after being crushed by a 1.6-ton steel coil at the company's factory in Ulju-gun, Ulsan, in December 2024. The sentencing comes under South Korea's Serious Accidents Punishment Act.

The victim was working at a height, attempting to cut the steel banding around the coil, which was stored on a shelf. At the moment the band was severed, the heavy coil lost its balance and fell from the shelf, striking the worker below. Investigations revealed a severe lack of basic safety precautions at the scene, with no adequate support structures in place to prevent such a catastrophic fall.

In addition to the CEO's prison sentence, the company's managing director received a one-year suspended prison sentence, and the corporation itself was fined 70 million won. The court determined that the company failed to create essential work plans and did not adequately train its employees on safety procedures, directly contributing to the fatal incident. The lack of minimal safety measures, such as supports to prevent the coil from falling, was a key factor in the ruling.