[News Today] 3 DIE AT HYUNDAI MOTOR PLANT

[LEAD]
Yesterday afternoon, three researchers died from suffocation at Hyundai Motor's Ulsan plant. The incident occurred during a vehicle test in a sealed space, likely caused by a gas leak.

[REPORT]
Three workers were found dead at a Hyundai Motor plant in Ulsan on Tuesday afternoon in a compound environmental chamber for conducting driving tests.

All three were researchers. Two of them were Hyundai Motor employees. The third person was from a partner firm.

They entered the chamber at around 12:50 p.m., two hours before the accident, to test a vehicle.

The drive simulation test was conducted in an enclosed environment by stepping on the accelerator pedal as hard as possible to find out the amount of exhaust gases emitted from the vehicle.

Hyundai Motor says the researchers did not exit the chamber on time and were found unresponsive inside the vehicle.

They were rushed to two hospitals but eventually passed away.

Industry insiders say the deaths were apparently caused by suffocation because exhaust gases could not escape from the narrow chamber.

Plant staff / (VOICE MODIFIED)
There is a device for removing exhaust gases from the chamber, but some types of gases were not removed for an unknown reason, resulting in deaths.

Police presume that the ventilator in the chamber did not work properly and are trying to identify the exact cause of the researchers' deaths.

Hyundai Motor has vowed to find out the cause of the accident as soon as possible and devise measures to prevent similar accidents from happening again.