Creating a Safe City Together with Citizens and Workers
Yeosu City in South Jeolla Province (Mayor Jung Kimyung) has launched efforts to strengthen a proactive prevention system for major accident hazards across all sectors, aiming to eliminate risk factors in daily life and ensure the safety of both citizens and workers.
Major accidents are not limited to factories; they can also occur in various everyday spaces, public facilities, and work sites.
Currently, there are more than 6,700 workers employed within the city. Not only the main city hall and 27 towns and districts, but also all departments?including various parks, libraries, welfare facilities, and road work sites?are subject to the Serious Accidents Punishment Act.
The dedicated Major Accident Team serves as the control tower, overseeing the safety and health management system of all departments. The mayor assumes the role of management representative, the vice mayor is directly responsible as the safety and health management officer, and 12 heads of bureaus, offices, and divisions are designated as the overall safety and health managers for their respective departments.
A total of 382 team leaders, who are tasked with supervising and directing worker safety, complete more than 16 hours of safety and health education annually to strengthen their management and supervisory capabilities. The city also regularly gathers worker feedback through the Industrial Safety and Health Committee, conducts work environment assessments, and provides health consultations, thereby implementing field-oriented safety management.
In particular, the city is making every effort to prevent accidents for workers in high-risk areas such as roadsides and forested green zones through proactive inspections and training. A total of 138 facilities frequently used by citizens?including daycare centers, libraries, performance halls, and sports facilities?are managed separately under the "major civil accident" category, distinct from the "major industrial accident" category.
The city conducts legal compliance checks and on-site inspections twice a year, and takes swift action based on inspection results to prevent risks in advance. In addition to bridges, tunnels, retaining walls, and cut slopes?which are essential for citizens' mobility and daily life?the city also plans to thoroughly inspect water and sewage treatment facilities that are difficult to check visually. Facilities related to vulnerable groups, such as daycare centers and senior citizen facilities, will be subject to strengthened inspections to ensure there are no safety blind spots.
A city official stated, "Major accidents are directly linked to the lives of citizens and workers, so we will create an accident-free city through prevention-focused safety management," adding, "We will do our utmost to ensure that major accidents do not occur in any space."
© The Asia Business Daily(www.asiae.co.kr). All rights reserved.
