After the Sewol ferry disaster, there has been greater attention to the crimes of safety accidents; however, due to the repeated occurrence of safety accidents with multiple casualties like the one at the construction site of the Namyangju subway and the collapse of the remodeling construction site in Seoul, critics have pointed out that the safety control regulation system has been insufficent to prevent such accidents, failing to serve as a fundamental solution.

In response, this Enactment aims to require persons in charge of management of a public facility or public transportation which random people are using to control the safety thereof and provide special penal cases to prevent multiple casualties by imposing stricter punishments for a person in charge of management who fails to perform such duties and leads to casualties, etc.

Details

A. A business owner or person in charge of management shall have a duty to prevent a user, etc., of a public facility or public transportation from danger to ensure that such user does not experience any harm to his/her life, safety or health, and therefore, shall conduct regular/irregular safety inspections regarding public facilities, etc. and safety education and training for workers (Article 3).

B. Where a person in charge of management, etc., violates his/her safety control and inspection duty, thereby leading to the death of a person, the person in charge of management, etc., shall be punished by imprisonment for life or five (5) years or more, and in the case of causing injury to a person, the person in charge of management, etc., shall be punished by imprisonment of up to three (3) years or fine of up to five hundred million won (Article 4).

C. Where a person in charge of management, etc., fails to perform his/her duty of safety control, the relevant legal entity may be imposed with a fine up to one billion won (Article 5).

D. Where a person in charge of management, etc., in the course of performing duties of a relevant legal entity, etc., leads a person to suffer casualty such that the relevant legal entity, etc., has liability for damage, such liability shall not exceed three (3) times the damage (Article 6).

Enact an Act prescribing matters concerning the punishment of a business owner or person in charge of management, etc., who has violated his/her safety control duty in place of business, public facility or public transportation, causing a casualty.

- Ensure that a business owner (limited to natural persons) or a person in charge of management has a duty to prevent danger such that a user or other persons in a place of business, public facility or public transportation do not experience any harm to his/her life, safety or health, by conducting regular and spot safety inspection regarding the relevant place of business, public facility or public transportation and by submitting the inspection results to the related head of an administrative agency (Article 3).