Characteristics of occupational accidents in the manufacturing industry of South Korea

Abstract

This study investigated the characteristics and causes of accidents in the manufacturing industry of Korea. The national statistics of industrial accidents in the years 1991–1994 were extracted from the annual publications of the Ministry of Labor. These data were analyzed in terms of size of company, age of injured person, work experience, injury severity, accident type, injury type, injured part of body, and agency of accident. The results show that there are some characteristics in the occupational accidents of manufacturing industry: (1) larger companies tend to have a lower accident rate than the smaller ones (2) about half of all injuries occurred during the first year of employment; (3) ‘caught in and the between objects’ represents the leading accident type; (4) ‘fracture’ is the leading injury type; (5) the body sites most vulnerable to injury are the hands and fingers; and (6) the most common type of incidence is the power machinery. Relevance to industry The purpose of an accident analysis is to obtain accurate and objective information about the causes of accidents in order to prevent the incident from reoccurring. The findings identified in this study can be used to decide on the accident prevention programs of the manufacturing industry.