The site manager who was prosecuted for shoddy construction of a nearby embankment related to the 'Cheongju Osong Underpass Disaster' that claimed 14 lives in 2023 has been sentenced to 6 years in prison.
On the 15th, the Supreme Court's 2nd Division (Presiding Justice Park Young-jae) upheld the original sentence of 6 years in prison for A (56), the construction site manager indicted on charges including professional negligence resulting in death.
The court stated, "There is no error in the lower court's judgment that violates the rules of logic and experience or exceeds the limits of free evaluation of evidence, nor any misinterpretation of the law regarding the establishment of professional negligence resulting in death or the crime of instigating the use of forged evidence," dismissing both the prosecutor's and defendant's appeals.
A was prosecuted for unauthorized demolition of an existing embankment and poorly constructing a temporary embankment to facilitate road expansion work in Osong-eup, Cheongju-si, Chungbuk, which caused casualties. He is also accused of forging drawings and construction plans to fabricate evidence that the temporary embankment was properly built.
It was investigated that the temporary embankment arbitrarily constructed by A was built 1.14 meters lower than the legal standard and 3.3 meters lower than the existing embankment.
The temporary embankment failed to contain the floodwaters caused by heavy rain on July 15, 2023, and burst around 8:10 a.m. As river water flowed into the Gungpyeong 2 Underpass in Osong-eup, Heungdeok-gu, Cheongju-si, the underpass was completely submerged by around 8:51 a.m. This accident resulted in 14 deaths and the flooding of 17 vehicles, including city buses.
The first trial court sentenced him to the maximum legal penalty of 7 years and 6 months in prison, but the second trial court accepted A's claim that the sentence was excessively harsh and reduced it to 6 years in prison.
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