Seoul sinkhole victim worked 2 jobs to provide for his family

SEOUL – The 33-year-old motorcyclist who died in

a sinkhole formed in eastern Seoul

had been a hard-working man who worked multiple jobs, his friends, family and colleagues recalled.

According to local media reports, the victim, surnamed Park, had been the primary breadwinner for his family consisting of him, his younger sister and their mother. He had provided financially for his family since his father died in 2018 in an accident.

Mr Park was a freelance employee of an advertisement firm and had a part-time job as a delivery worker after office hours. He had been out making a delivery on March 24 when the sinkhole suddenly opened up and swallowed him at around 6.29pm that day.

Mr Park’s friend from childhood, surnamed Kim, told Korean-language daily JoongAng Ilbo that Mr Park was famous among their friends for working seven days a week.

Mr Kim said his friend had been a vivacious child, dressing up as popular anime characters for fun and frequently making his friends laugh with his jokes.

“No one could deny that he worked hard in his life. He dedicated himself to the company and worked all the delivery jobs that he could get his hands on at night. He worked so hard to the point that I was getting worried, and I don’t know how such a tragedy could occur,” he was quoted as saying.

Mr Park’s colleague from the advertising firm said he frequently worked as a delivery worker from when he left the office at around 5pm to 2am the next day.

The funeral for Mr Park has been set up at a funeral parlour in Gangdong-gu, Seoul.

While driving his motorcycle, Mr Park fell into the 20m-wide and 18m-deep sinkhole that suddenly opened up near an intersection in Gangdong-gu, eastern Seoul on March 24, which also injured the driver of another vehicle that narrowly avoided being swallowed up by the hole.

The latter driver, 48, had non-critical injuries.

Mr Park’s body

was found 17 hours later

by the authorities at about 11.20am the next day, buried in mud some 50m away from the centre of where the sinkhole had initially formed.

Four schools in the area temporarily closed on March 25 owing to safety concerns, and officials cut off the electricity and removed oil from a nearby gas station to prevent potential accidents.

Construction to extend Seoul Metro Line No. 9, which was being conducted near the sinkhole spot, has been suspended for the time being.

The authorities are conducting an investigation on the exact cause of the accident. The subway construction is suspected to be linked to the formation of the sinkhole. It was found that the accident site underwent a special government inspection in February, which did not find any irregularities.

But it has also been discovered that two civic complaints were made in March to the Seoul Metropolitan Government about cracks in the ground of the gas station near the sinkhole site. THE KOREA HERALD/ASIA NEWS NETWORK