3 Deaths in Sejong Bathhouse Accident Caused by 'Underwater Massager Motor Short Circuit'

Three Women Electrocuted at Bathhouse in Sejong City

On Christmas Eve last year, three bathers died in a bathhouse in Sejong City, and the cause of the tragedy was identified as an electric leakage due to a short circuit in the underwater massager motor.

The Violent Drug Crime Investigation Division of the Sejong Police Agency announced on the 23rd that the National Forensic Service's forensic analysis concluded that the coil inside the motor connected to the underwater massager in the hot bath was broken (coil short circuit), causing electric leakage.

The underwater massager operates by applying pressure from a motor located in the basement machine room. In other words, the coil inside the motor was broken, and the current flowing through the motor was transmitted through the pipes into the bath beyond the massager. At the time, there were four people in the women's bath, but only three in the hot bath suffered the tragedy. Autopsies of the three deceased bathers confirmed that the cause of death was electric shock. It was also reported that a bathhouse staff member who tried to pull the bather who collapsed in the hot bath out felt an electric shock in their hand.

A police line is installed at the entrance of a bathhouse in Jochiwon-eup, Sejong City, where an electric shock accident occurred in the women's bathhouse last year on the morning of December 24, resulting in three casualties.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

The bathhouse where the accident occurred had one motor each connected to the underwater massagers in the men's and women's baths, but only the motor connected to the women's bath was found to have a problem. The building is a basement one floor and three floors above ground structure, approved for use in December 1984. The basement floor housed the women's bath, the first floor above ground had the counter and men's bath, and the second and third floors were used as a motel. Given that the building was constructed 39 years ago, the motor itself was also considerably aged.

The police, who have been investigating the bathhouse owner Mr. A (58) on charges of professional negligence causing death, plan to send him to prosecution without detention by the end of this month. The police had applied for an arrest warrant for Mr. A once, but it was dismissed by the court.

Mr. A, who is responsible for operating and managing the bathhouse, is suspected of causing casualties due to neglecting facility management. According to the police investigation, Mr. A, who has been operating the bathhouse since 2015, did not conduct any special detailed mechanical inspections apart from the mandatory annual electrical safety inspections for bathhouses.

During the mandatory electrical safety inspection by the Korea Electrical Safety Corporation in June last year, no particular problems were found. However, since the building was constructed before 2003, when the installation of leakage circuit breakers became legally mandatory, the bathhouse did not have a leakage circuit breaker.

Earlier, at around 5:37 a.m. on December 24 last year, three bathers in their 70s were electrocuted in the hot bath of the women's bath on the basement floor of a bathhouse in Jochiwon-eup, Sejong City. They were transported to the hospital but all died. It was confirmed that the three were not acquaintances.