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Accidents happened at around 4% of Korean construction sites last year

Published: 24 Aug. 2025, 16:20 Updated: 24 Aug. 2025, 16:46

The photo shows an apartment construction site in Seongbuk District, central Seoul, on June 19. [YONHAP]

Fatal accidents continue to plague Korea’s construction industry, with new data showing little difference in accident rates between public and private projects.

A worker died on Aug. 13 after a tree fell on them at a landscaping maintenance site in Yeongju, North Gyeongsang, on a project ordered by the Korea Expressway Corporation.

The accident occurred when a dead tree fell in the opposite direction of what workers expected. Authorities later said they could have prevented the incident if the site had secured a safety perimeter.

Another worker died in a separate accident at a private construction site in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi, after falling into a basement while working on the first floor of a building. Investigators found that the site lacked a safety net and that the employer had not provided protective equipment.

Construction accidents occur at similar rates in both public and private projects. Of the 6,180 accidents reported last year, 3,082 happened at public projects, accounting for 49.9 percent, while 3,098 occurred at private projects, accounting for 50.1 percent, according to data the Korea Authority of Land & Infrastructure Safety released on Sunday.

Public projects outnumbered private ones overall, with 87,616 cases compared to 75,283 private cases. However, the accident rate was slightly higher at private sites: 4.1 percent compared to 3.5 percent in public projects.

The number of injured workers also appeared evenly split. A total of 3,121 people were injured at public construction sites last year, while 3,124 were injured at private ones. Fatalities were higher in private projects, with 121 deaths compared to 74 at public ones.

Large-scale projects worth more than 100 billion won ($72 million) caused the greatest number of accidents last year, killing 41 people and injuring 2,067. The report attributed the higher numbers to the larger workforces and the greater number of high-risk jobs at such sites.

Projects worth between 1 billion and 5 billion won recorded the most deaths, with 53 fatalities and 687 cases of serious injury.

Investigators identified poor compliance with safety rules as the leading cause of accidents, accounting for 80.9 percent of cases. Contributing included negligence by construction firms and weak safety awareness among workers. Those violations resulted in 129 deaths and 4,906 injuries.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY KIM TAE-YUN [[email protected]]