[Editor's Pick] "He Was Such a Diligent Man": Pregnant Wife Weeps After Husband Dies in Forklift Accident While Wearing a Cast

A forklift lies overturned on a ramp in a supermarket's underground parking lot.

The parking lot barrier is broken, and corn is scattered across the ground.

The victim, the late Kim Young-kyun, who was operating the forklift at the time, had stepped off the vehicle to collect corn that had fallen onto the ground. He was crushed to death while attempting to stop the moving forklift.

It is presumed that the accident occurred when the forklift, which had been parked on the ramp, began to roll backward.

On the day of the accident, the freight elevator was out of order, forcing the transport of the forklift through the underground parking lot. Kim was reportedly struggling to operate the vehicle properly as he was wearing a cast on one foot.

[Supermarket Official: There were people guiding it from the front and back. Since the freight elevator was broken, the work was likely carried out voluntarily, and we usually prioritize certified personnel within the regulations...]

His wife, who is heavily pregnant and just two weeks away from her due date, lost her husband overnight.

She wept, explaining that Kim, a non-regular worker, had been working even on weekends in hopes of being converted to a permanent contract position this coming August.

[Wife of the late Kim Young-kyun: Even when he was with me, he was constantly in contact (with the company) and would go in for supermarket work even on his days off. He was such a diligent man.]

The forklift Kim was operating was under 3 tons, which requires the completion of mandatory safety training to operate.

However, the bereaved family claims that Kim had been performing forklift duties since he first joined the company, despite never having received the relevant training.

[Bereaved Family: It is irresponsible to have an unqualified person perform that job when there were structural conditions that made an accident inevitable at any time.]

The police and the Gwangju Regional Employment and Labor Office are currently investigating the circumstances of the forklift operation, the work assignment process, and whether safety regulations were followed.

(Video reporting: Yoon In-soo, JIBS | Written by: Yoon Sung-sik | Footage courtesy of: Jeju Fire Safety Headquarters | Produced by: SBS Digital News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.