Road Corporation Safety and Disaster Management Rated 'E'... Increase in Approved Industrial Accident Deaths

Received 'E Grade' in 'Safety and Disaster Management' Category
"Must Establish Death Reduction Measures Such as Video Analysis"

Korea Expressway Corporation received an 'E grade (very poor)' in the 'Social Responsibility - Safety and Disaster Management' category of the public enterprise management performance evaluation last year. This was influenced by a decline in the 'Safety Management Grading System' evaluation score, which serves as the evaluation criterion for this category, due to an increase in the number of industrial accident-approved fatalities compared to the previous year.

Korea Expressway Corporation Headquarters / Photo by Korea Expressway Corporation

According to the '2023 Public Enterprise Management Performance Evaluation Report' released by the Ministry of Economy and Finance on the 20th, the Expressway Corporation received an overall safety management grade of 3 (score 74) in the quantitative safety and disaster management sector. This is one grade lower compared to the overall grade 2 (score 80) in 2022. The Safety Grading Management System is an indicator that evaluates efforts and achievements to maintain a safe working and living environment free from industrial accidents. It comprehensively reviews safety capabilities, levels, and performance to assign grades.

Since 2020, the Expressway Corporation's safety management grade had shown improvement. It recorded 4-1 grade (poor) in 2020, grade 3 (average) in 2021, and grade 2 (good) in 2022. However, last year, the grade dropped to 3 due to an increase in industrial accident-approved fatalities. According to the Expressway Corporation, the number of industrial accident-approved fatalities decreased from 5 each in 2020 and 2021 to 1 in 2022, but rose to 3 last year. When counting fatalities based on occurrence, the trend has been decreasing since 2021, but the management performance evaluation uses the approval standard.

The report stated, "This year, social responsibility factors such as safety and disaster management and ethical management, as well as financial performance management factors including productivity, financial soundness, and cost reduction efforts, were strictly evaluated." It also judged that "the Expressway Corporation needs to link and accompany the system for discovering new disasters and potential risks with the institution's safety and disaster management strategy." It emphasized the need to actively encourage participation by gathering opinions from internal members, including field workers, and identifying risk factors.

Achievements such as safe road management and improving the visibility of closed-circuit television (CCTV) to respond to nighttime and severe weather conditions were positively evaluated. The report noted, "The Expressway Corporation improved traffic management standards by installing high-grade shock-absorbing facilities to reduce workplace risk levels, and the actual number of accidents decreased." However, it pointed out, "Despite this, fatalities increased, so measures to reduce deaths should be established based on video analysis and other methods."