Elementary Student Fatally Crushed by Toppled Ladder Truck Passes Away

An elementary school student who suffered severe injuries after being crushed by a toppled ladder truck in an apartment complex in Cheonan, South Chungcheong Province, has ultimately passed away.

According to the Cheonan Dongnam Police Station and Dankook University Hospital, the victim, an elementary school student identified as A, who was heavily injured after being crushed by the falling ladder of a truck at an apartment complex in Sinbu-dong, Cheonan, yesterday (August 27), passed away at around 3:00 p.m. yesterday while receiving treatment.

A police official stated, "Although A had fallen into cardiac arrest immediately after the accident and recovered a pulse through emergency first aid by 119 rescue workers, the child ultimately passed away due to traumatic brain hemorrhage and other injuries."

Police investigation results captured circumstances indicating that safety regulations were not properly followed during the operation of the ladder truck.

At the time, student A was passing by the playground on the way to school, when the ladder of a truck moving household goods in the apartment complex toppled toward the playground, crushing A.

Investigators found that the workers at the time carried out the work without properly setting up the outriggers designed to stabilize the ladder truck.

Although all four outriggers should have been deployed, the ladder was raised to the height of the 11th floor of the apartment with only two extended.

Police believe that the vehicle lost its balance during this process, causing the ladder to topple.

Police also confirmed that the person who actually operated the ladder truck at the time of the accident was a foreign worker in his 20s who was residing in the country illegally.

Police have requested arrest warrants for two individuals, including a ladder truck driver in his 50s and the foreign worker in his 20s, on charges of professional negligence resulting in death.

The pre-trial detention hearing for them was held at 11:00 a.m. today.

A police official stated, "We confirmed circumstances where they attempted to conceal the details of the accident, such as failing to disclose that the foreign worker operated the ladder truck," adding, "We will also verify whether safety regulations, such as controlling the area around the work site, were violated."

Reported by Kim Jiuk | Video by Lee Yu-jin | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.