2 Suncheon high school students killed on field trip.

From Naver, more here.

Sad news today as two students from Suncheon's Hyocheon High School were killed in a bus accident while on their field trip in Jeju. The driver was also killed. The report from Yonhap, in Korean, is here and says that forty others are injured. This comes roughly a year after five students from Suncheon's Maesan Middle School were killed during a field trip to Jirisan.

* Update 1: Korea Beat has their translation of a Chosun Ilbo article here. An excerpt:

The bus, travelling downhill over the center of the road, strayed into the foliage zone 5 meters off the road and flipped over onto the driver’s seat side.

Police believe that the bus, going downhill towards Jeju City, came too close to the curb on the right-hand side and swerved back, flipping over onto the left-hand side.

A student said, “the accident happened after we had hiked up Hallasan and were heading back to Jeju City for lunch. Most of the students who had hiked were sleeping, and since it wasn’t a long trip most of them weren’t wearing their seatbelts and a lot of my friends were hurt.”

* Update 2: The Joongang Ilbo has the story. I switched my headline from three students to two, which is the number being reported today.

When the accident befell Maesan last year, people at my school weren't too worked up about it. My coteacher remarked that it happened every year. Perhaps with so many traffic accidents and suicides people are desensitized to students' deaths a little more than back home. After two deadly bus accidents on two field trips in two consecutive years for Suncheon schools, I think if I were a parent I'd be against letting my student attend a school field trip. Especially one to a mountain, when clearly little regard to safety is paid. Both accidents, after all, occurred on South Korea's two highest peaks and were both due to driver error. Not a problem confined to school field trips, though, as few wear seat belts here and few are cautious drivers. My students made the trip to Jeju's Hallasan a few weeks ago, but I would hope my schools would reconsider making the trip next time around, or at least avoid taking unwieldy buses.