Traffic Accidents and Korean Roads

Another element of the tragic death of the two middle school girls who were run over by a USFK armored vehicle that has made some expats bitter about the Korean reaction is our knowledge of  the frequency of road accidents in Korea and how they are handled by Korean society. 

Koreans know the situation on their roads.

Here is parts of an opinion story in the Times about road accidents and children --

Nominal `School Zones’

The project is timely and far-sighted in that about 200 children are killed annually in traffic accidents that take place in school zones. For instance, a total of 490 children met their fate in traffic mishaps in 1999 alone, and 228 of them lost their lives in the school zones.

According to the report based on a survey of the accidental death rate of children below the age of 15, Korea took the first place with 25.6 per every 100,000, followed by 6.1 of Britain and Italy. The lowest was 5.2 of Sweden.

``Accidents while walking’’ are mainly responsible for such a highest rate as they account for 71 percent of the total, compared with Sweden’s 13 percent, and the Netherlands’ 18 percent.

Needless to say, the bad habit of not keeping traffic rules has been the main cause of accidents involving children walking on streets.

This does not deminish the tragic nature of the deaths of the two middle school girls killed by USFK nor the deaths of the other Korean school children in Korean related accidents.

The point is that it is incredibily wrong and hypocritical for the whole of Korean society to use the tragic deaths as an excuse to vent hatred and hold USFK soldiers up to a standard of justice they do not demand of their own citizens.   

Another report highlights the nature of driving on Korean roads.

"Since 2000, we have done our utmost to improve the negative image Korea has had of being one of the industrialized countries notorious in the area of road safety," the [Korean police] official said.

The National Police Agency (NPA) said the number of people who died in traffic accidents last year fell to 8097, a 20.9 percent drop from 10,236 deaths in 2000.

At the same time that Koreans were still outraged after months of protests at the death of the two girls, the Chusok thanksgiving holiday came.  It is three or four days long and the vast majority of Koreans head to their hometowns. 

A total of 46 people were killed in traffic accidents during the harvest festival of Chuseok, down from 110 the same time last year, police said yesterday.  The National Police Agency said the number of road accidents fell 37.8 percent to 2,058 cases across the nation between Thursday and Sunday from 3,314 a year earlier.]

Another report stated that an average of 22 Koreans are killed daily and 1,059 are injured due to traffic accidents.

The number of deaths from traffic accidents per 100,000 people amounted to 16.9 persons, higher than 8.2 for Japan, 13.6 for France and 15.2 for the United States.

In the Korean social system, as well, drivers at fault rarely go to jail even in fatalities.  Koreans settle such events by reaching a monetary settlement.  This is not always the case, and parties that cannot come to an agreement on compensation can land in front of a criminal court judge and sentenced to prison until they reach a settlement or to serve real time in severe cases of negligence. 

The norm, again, is a monetary settlement with no jail time.

USFK agreed to pay $166,524 to each of the families.  The Korea Herald did not report this news.  The Korean government and Korean people are still protesting for criminal charges to be filed in Korean court.

None of this diminishes the tragedy of the death of the two girls. 

But the norm for handling traffic fatalities in Korea is a far cry from the exaggerated, prolonged, and hate-filled reaction they had displayed to USFK.  Foreigners in Korea are not too unaware of what happens in Korea to understand the situation.

And in my opinion and other expats in Korea, the mixture of the tragic death of those two girls with anti-Iraqi war and all other elements of the process of hate-USFK hate-U.S. DOES diminish those deaths.  I will confess, it disgusts me.