Twenty-year-old wind turbine collapses, narrowly missing parked car, dramatic video shows

A twenty-year-old wind turbine in South Korea collapsed on Tuesday, narrowly missing a car parked nearby on the side of the road.

The story was reported by several local South Korean outlets following the wind turbine’s collapse at around 4:40pm on February 2 at a wind farm located on the east coast of the country.

Local fire officials quickly responded to reports of the turbine’s collapse, which had resulted in the turbine snapping approximately a third of the way up the tower and crashing across the road beneath.

While no cars were passing as the turbine collapsed, one car had parked on the nearby shoulder of the road to make a phone call, capturing the moment the tower buckled and sent the turbine crashing to the ground.

Reports were confused as to the name of the wind farm, likely due to the vagaries of AI-assisted translation, but it is likely to be the Yeongdeok wind farm, which was completed in 2005 and consists of 25 1,650-kilowatt (kW) wind turbines, measuring in at 80-metres in height.

The video appears to show the tower buckling, but several outlets quoted local officials who claimed that the turbine only buckled after one of the turbine blades broke or tore apart, striking the tower and causing it to lose balance.

The local Yeongdeok County will reportedly investigate licensing aspects with the wind farm’s construction company as well as conduct safety inspections on the remaining 23 turbines, in collaboration with the federal government.

Image credits: News1