Tragic equation
Earlier this month, the Group of Seven (G7) nations’ leaders met for the first time in person since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. South Korea was invited as a special guest country and many domestic media outlets touted this as attesting to the fact that we had joined the ranks of “advanced nations.” Then, two days before President Moon Jae-in departed for the summit, a building collapsed in Gwangju, killing nine people and seriously injuring eight others.
The investigation is still ongoing but everything points to the fact that this was yet another man-made disaster that was easily preventable.
The collapse occurred at an urban redevelopment site in the middle of Gwangju where a brand new, large-scale apartment complex is to be built. The prime contractor, Hyundai Development Corporation (HDC), had subcontracted the demolition work to another company, Hansol, which had in turn engaged a sub-subcontractor, Baeksol. HDC denies any knowledge of the sub-subcontracting.
The demolition plans submitted to and approved by the city council were textbook, but they were never followed. Instead, the subcontractor, in order to save time and cost, essentially tried to knock down a five-story building in its entirety rather than doing it step-by-step, demolishing it from the top one level at a time.
The workers had become aware from the noises that the remaining structure was making that something was not quite right and had evacuated the site. No one bothered to sound an alarm. No one notified the authorities to warn the public although the building site was directly facing a large road with heavy traffic.
In the end, all of the victims, including a 17-year old high school student, were completely innocent bystanders who were on a bus that made a stop along its regular route on that road.
The recriminations began almost immediately. Why was there no on-site supervisor? How could the city council not check that the plans were being followed? Why was the bus stop not moved during the construction period? At each stage, just observing a standard safety measure would have saved these people’s lives and yet, this was not done.
How could something like this happen in Korea in 2021. Isn’t this the kind of thing that only happens in developing countries? Surely, we must have learned our lesson since the Seongsoo Bridge collapse and the Sampoong department store disaster?
We had forgotten that just two years ago, there was an identical disaster in Jamwondong, in Gangnam, where a building that was being demolished, collapsed suddenly, killing one person and seriously injuring three others. It turned out that the building was being knocked down from the middle and not dismantled from the top.
Even in the short space since the Gwangju building disaster, there have been daily reports of construction workers being killed as a result of scaffolding collapses or other accidents on site.
The construction industry is one that is marred by high rates of accidents and deaths. No one disputes the hazardous nature of the work, but two particular features of the industry seem to compound the problem. They are the practice of illegal subcontracting and the lack of proper accountability.
Given the cyclical and specialized nature of the construction industry, subcontracting is inevitable and even desirable in some cases. But for too long, the prime contractors have exploited subcontractors and sub-subcontractors skimming off the top and squeezing their margins leaving them no choice but to cut corners and do “kludge” work.
A law to make subcontracting more fair and reasonable was introduced in 1984. The law also makes multi-level subcontracting illegal and is supposed to ensure that subcontractors are paid directly. And yet, these kinds of illegal practices still go on.
The illegal subcontracting leads directly to a lack of accountability. In theory, the prime contractor should be accountable for the entire project. But in reality, if the subcontractor had sub-subcontracted part of its work to a third party without the prime contractor’s knowledge, it is difficult to hold the prime contractor liable. The law needs to apply strict liability to prime contractors.
In the example in the Jamwondong case, although the site manager, the supervisor and the demolition company have been charged and found guilty, the investigation is still ongoing with regard to the architect, the building owner, and the relevant council officer for their roles in the disaster.
Finally, what we also overlook is the meta-context of the disaster. The recent redevelopment boom drastically incentivizes speed because time equals money in ever greater amounts than before. In that equation, there is no space for safety. But sacrificing safety for profit is not in accordance with the standards for an advanced nation.
The true test is how much we value and cherish each human life no matter who they are.