Seoul City will conduct a safety check of subway ventilation grates and other ventilation facilities following last week’s deadly collapse of a ventilation grate in a nearby city, officials said Monday.
A total of 16 people were killed Friday evening when a ventilation grate collapsed during an outdoor concert at a multipurpose complex in Seongnam, just southeast of Seoul.
Eleven others were seriously injured after falling through the ventilation grate they had been standing on to get a better view of the concert, sparking safety concerns over poorly-managed ventilation facilities.
The city of Seoul has about 2,418 subway ventilation grates linked to the city’s nine subway lines, with 1,177 of them installed on sidewalks, the city said, stressing that they will inspect every subway grate as well as other public ventilation facilities.
By the end of this week, the city will finish the inspection to draw up safety guidelines regarding ventilation facility safety, the city added.
“Under the current city subway construction standards of the city, the grates of ventilation shafts should be made to withstand as much as 500 kilograms per one square meter. So it is deemed safe,” a Seoul city official said, defending the city’s safety standards.
The city has, however, has not managed other facilities belonging to private premises, the official admitted.
In order to prevent a similar accident, the metropolitan city also plans to conduct safety checks on the city’s public outdoor performance facilities, according to the city. (Yonhap)
