Vietnam jails 2 Koreans in deadly scaffolding collapse

The People’s Court in Ha Tinh Province condemned Kim Jong Wook, director of the construction site, to three years and six months in jail and Lee Jae Myeong, an on-site manager, to six years.

Two Vietnamese workers, Nguyen Anh Tuan and Nguyen Thai Duc, also received sentences of three years and 30 months in jail respectively for violating regulations on occupational safety.

Tuan and Duc admitted to the court that they had not reported an incorrectly positioned hydraulic jack to their supervisors and went on to fix it without orders or the proper skills.

The two were appointed by the Korean team to operate the system of hydraulic jacks at the construction site despite their lack of professional training and certification, according to the defendants’ statements.

Kim and Lee, for their parts, claimed that they did not understand that the scaffolding was unstable and forced the workers to get back to their shift after they had previously fled the site, leading to the tragic accident.

Nguyen Khac Tuan, defense attorney of Tuan and Duc, proposed that the contractor of the construction site, Samsung C&T Corporation under the management of South Korea’s Samsung Group, be held responsible.

According to the Vietnam Institute of Building Science and Technology, the primary cause of the accident was the unsafe operation of the scaffolding system, which is the corporation’s liability, attorney Tuan explained.

However, the court could not make the accusation as the individual responsible for the application of the scaffolding system had returned to South Korea.

The scaffolding collapsed at 8:00 pm on March 25 at the construction site of the Son Duong Port, contracted by Samsung C&T, in the Formosa Industrial Park, which is located in the Vung Ang Economic Zone.

The Formosa Industrial Park is the investment of a Taiwanese company of the same name.

The 25m-tall scaffold was about 40m in length and 30m in width.