Suwon Establishes Three New Teams in Safety Sector to Secure Citizen Safety

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Jung Jun-seong] Suwon City announced on the 4th that in the inaugural year of its special metropolitan city status, it has established three new teams in the safety sector and put in place a comprehensive local community safety management system to secure citizen safety.

The dedicated safety organizations formed following the special metropolitan city's launch include the Safety Inspection Team conducting continuous safety inspection activities, the Industrial Accident Prevention TF Team preventing safety accidents at industrial sites, and the Architectural Safety Team responsible for safety management of construction sites and aging buildings.

A city official noted that this initiative responds to growing social expectations regarding safety as responsibility for preventing industrial safety accidents has become more important than ever due to the enforcement of the Serious Accident Punishment Act, following recent incidents such as the collapse of an apartment construction site in Gwangju Metropolitan City.

■ Operation of Safety Inspection Team
Safety inspection work has traditionally been conducted by metropolitan cities and provinces. While basic local governments were granted authority to impose penalties for violations of disaster management obligations, the absence of a dedicated organization made it difficult to exercise safety inspection authority.

Considering administrative demand based on population size, the city, which launched as a special metropolitan city in January, established the Safety Inspection Team, a dedicated safety inspection organization.

The Safety Inspection Team inspects overall community safety to prevent natural and social disasters, and conducts inspections at areas closely related to daily life and safety blind spots. The team also plans to establish and implement preventive inspection plans with emphasis on advance prevention.

■ Operation of Industrial Accident Prevention TF Team
The Industrial Accident Prevention TF (Task Force) Team has been working on disaster prevention since the enforcement of the 'Act on Punishment of Serious Accidents, etc.' on January 27, conducting inspections of public facility project sites.

The Industrial Accident Prevention TF Team is responsible for ▲establishing safety and health management systems ▲compiling and executing budgets for preventing serious accidents ▲establishing comprehensive plans and guidelines for disaster prevention ▲establishing measures to prevent recurrence following industrial accidents ▲reviewing and managing compliance with safety and health-related laws and regulations.

■ Establishment of Architectural Safety Team
According to the revised 'Building Act' this year, mayors and governors of cities with a population of 500,000 or more and county commissioners must establish and operate a 'Regional Architectural Safety Center' to conduct technical review and inspection of architectural permits and approvals, and perform management and supervision of construction supervision.

The city established the Architectural Safety Team to inspect safety at construction sites and systematically and professionally manage building safety following completion of construction.

The primary responsibilities of the Architectural Safety Team include ▲technical review and verification of architectural permit and approval documents ▲safety inspections of construction sites ▲management and supervision of construction supervision ▲inspection of small-scale aging buildings, etc.