On the 1st, the fourth day of the collapse and burial of the Sampyo Industrial Quarry in Yangju, Gyeonggi-do, the fire department and police continued to search for the missing persons by mobilizing their equipment and manpower as much as possible despite the heavy snowfall.
However, it was not possible to further rescue Jeong-mo (52), who has not yet been found among the three people who were buried.
The fire department and the police conducted a search operation that day, using 68 equipment including 17 excavators and 10 lighting vehicles, 227 personnel including 56 rescuers, and 4 rescue dogs.
Three snow removal equipments were also put in from the previous day to clear the accumulated snow and carry out the search operation.
On that day, the fire department and police conducted a search operation by excavating around the floor in the direction of the collapsed area where the buried person is believed to be and the floor at the point where the pump facility was installed.
Additional safety was also secured, such as installing a drainage ditch to drain water from the bottom, and installing a measuring instrument at the boundary of the collapsed site to determine whether there is an additional risk of collapse due to deep excavation of the bottom.
The fire department and police also carried out a multifaceted search operation with the support of 11 metal detectors owned by the military unit.
A safe search environment was prepared with a light wave meter, such as installing a GPS device to accurately check the rock topography and location of the quarry, and 10 light wave reflection prisms (soil flow meter) to check for signs of further collapse of the slope at the top of the burial site.
The fire department and police carried out a four-day search operation to remove about a third of the 300,000 cubic meters of 20-meter-high soil that had collapsed in the accident.
However, there is a risk of further collapse and the search operation is being carried out slowly as the work is being carried out while ensuring safety, such as having to drain the water generated from the floor.
The weather also makes the search operation difficult.
After a lot of snow overnight, a cold wave advisory is in effect in Yangju from 9 pm on the same day.
The police and the Ministry of Labor are accelerating investigations into the cause of the accident.
On the previous day, the previous day, on the 31st of last month, the police raided the site office of Sampyo Industrial Yangju Office and the office of a partner company together with the Ministry of Labor in a blitz and searched, and then summoned field officials to investigate the cause of the accident.
First, the police booked one on-site blasting team leader on charges of manslaughter due to work negligence. After the investigation is completed, the number of suspects is expected to increase.
Police predicted that the investigation would begin in earnest after the Lunar New Year holiday.
Earlier, the police were informed of the first opinion from the National Institute of Forensic Sciences, which had requested the autopsies of the two people who died the day before, that it was ‘death from multiple injuries and compression asphyxiation’.
The Ministry of Labor is checking whether Sampyo Industries has violated the Occupational Safety and Health Act and the Severe Accident Punishment Act based on data obtained through seizure and search.
At 10:08 a.m. on the 29th of last month, while drilling a hole for stone blasting at Sampyo Industrial Yangju Office in Eunhyeon-myeon, Yangju, 300,000㎥ of earth and sand collapsed.
In the accident, three people who were working on the equipment were buried. Among them, Kim (55), an excavator driver, and another driller, Jeong (28), were found dead on the day of the accident. yunhap news
/cloudfront-ap-northeast-1.images.arcpublishing.com/chosun/FGETK5H6LBAYHGPBYBAM3HRYBE.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
/cloudfront-ap-northeast-1.images.arcpublishing.com/chosun/KMDAFXWLO3F5RZJY56A5I4NSIM.jpg?fit=300%2C300&ssl=1)
