Sanitation worker in their 20s dies after truck rear-ends garbage collection vehicle in Cheongju

Police have launched an investigation after a sanitation worker in their 20s died when a truck rear-ended the garbage collection vehicle they were riding on the back of.

According to the Cheongju Cheongwon Police Station on Friday, a truck driven by a person in their 60s, identified only as A, struck a garbage collection vehicle from behind at around 5:20 a.m. Thursday on a road in Sacheon-dong, Cheongwon-gu, Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province.

The collision threw a sanitation worker in their 20s, identified only as B, to the ground, causing serious injuries including a fractured pelvis. B was taken to a hospital and underwent surgery but died at around 2 a.m. Friday.

B was a fixed-term contract worker employed for sanitation work under Cheongju city and was standing on the rear footboard of the garbage truck at the time of the accident.

The crash occurred immediately after the garbage truck changed lanes from the third lane to the first lane, according to police. Investigators are looking into whether A failed to keep eyes on the road ahead and whether the garbage truck made an abrupt lane change.

The North Chungcheong branch of the Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) issued a statement of condolence Friday, saying the accident was "the responsibility of Cheongju city, which has disregarded worker safety and left problems unaddressed."

The group said the city's directly employed union had long demanded additional staffing, zone adjustments and the removal of footboards from contractor vehicles, but the city had ignored those requests until the accident occurred.

The KCTU branch added that without the footboards, workers would lose time climbing in and out of vehicles during waste collection and could not finish their routes on schedule. "The calls to hire more people and reduce the area each team covers have been around for a long time, but they were never accepted," it said.

In January 2018, the government — in a joint safety improvement plan for sanitation workers drawn up by related ministries — explicitly stated that riding on truck footboards while in transit could not be permitted given road conditions in South Korea.