Prison terms of up to two years have been handed down to those responsible for the shoddy construction of the Miho River embankment, which was pointed out as the cause of the Osong underpass disaster that claimed 14 lives.

Judge Kang Geon-woo of Criminal Division 5 at the Cheongju District Court sentenced the construction company's site manager, identified as A, to one year and six months in prison after he was additionally indicted for violations of the River Act.

Two employees of the construction company, indicted on charges including instigating the fabrication of evidence, were sentenced to one year in prison with a two-year suspended sentence and two years in prison, respectively. Two employees of the supervision company were each sentenced to one year and eight months in prison with a three-year suspended sentence.

The construction company, indicted for violating the Construction Technology Promotion Act, was fined 120 million won, the statutory maximum fine, while the corporate entity of the supervision company was fined 70 million won.

Manager A and the others face charges of unlawfully demolishing the existing embankment for the Mihocheon Bridge expansion project, building a shoddy temporary embankment, and neglecting on-site management and supervision, thereby causing casualties.

They are also accused of forging construction plans and blueprints to conceal the fact that the temporary embankment was built without proper procedures.

The court pointed out, "When the defendants first cut through the embankment in 2021, they did not even know that what they were tearing down was an embankment," adding that "claiming that the embankment excavation was included in the design drawings itself makes it difficult to avoid social criticism."

The court criticized, "The fundamental cause of this accident lies in the business practices of the construction company, which pursued profits to a degree bordering on obsession," and added, "By compelling employees to pursue only company profits, they destroyed the embankment, which is the last line of defense against flood damage, and rendered the supervision system, a minimal institutional device for ensuring safety, meaningless."

Meanwhile, the Osong disaster occurred on July 15, 2023, when torrential rains caused the Miho River embankment to collapse, flooding Gungpyeong Underground Passage 2 in Osong-eup, Cheongju, submerging 17 vehicles including a city bus. The accident resulted in 14 deaths and 16 injuries.

(Photo: Yonhap News)