Three out of ten Korean drivers do not wear their seatbelts while driving and the same number do not obey the stop line in front of crosswalks, according to nationwide research by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority released Sunday.
According to the result of the survey of 143,762 people across 232 cities, counties and districts, an average of 70 percent of drivers wear their seatbelts while driving -- 73 percent in cities and 63 percent in rural areas. On highways, the percentage went up to 75.9 percent. The Daedeok District in Daejeon had the highest percentage of wearing seatbelts, with 97 percent. The number of pedestrians crossing crosswalks during red lights was 13,810 out of 59,411, or 18.9 percent.
Traffic safety in Korea has been a hobby horse of mine for some time, and last spring I asked why students were holding up signs saying "We Want to Live!" at rallies against Mad Cow Disease when they were far more likely to be killed on the roads or on the sidewalks. Besides leading the OECD in motor vehicle accidents, South Korea is also the most dangerous nation in the OECD for pedestrians, because as the article mentioned drivers often don't obey traffic laws or pay attention to their surroundings. However, the reckless behavior of pedestrians is also very alarming, as people of all ages will just walk out in front of traffic and will cross busy roads wherever they please. Students at one of my schools---perhaps both, I don't know---take safety education courses, classes that cover things like traffic safety and first aid, and the book says when walking across the road make eye contact with the driver and hold up your arm. I suppose that's about the best we can do, considering even at the busiest intersections in Suncheon there are no operational traffic lights.
Here's an example of what I deal with on a regular basis. In front of one of my schools is an eight-lane highway, and people routinely meander across it to get to the apartments between intersections. Just over the hill is a set of crosswalks, and about twenty meters to my right is an overpass, yet I watch people of all ages make a mad dash across it as I wait for the bus.
An article I always bring up at times like this was one that covered the failed introduction of mandatory child car seats in South Korea. In 2006 the government put a law into place requiring children under the age of 6 to be in a car seat. However, parents actually protested against the law, and it was repealed a day later. The article said that a survey done by the police in 2005 found that only 12% of parents used carseats for their small children. Here's the best line from that article:
“We don’t have to do what foreigners do in their countries. We have our own way to take care of babies,” another posting at the agency’s Web site said.
Let's not take one commentor's word as representative of an entire nation, and let's find merit in the comment in that Koreans generally hate being told by foreigners what's best for them. But that episode is revealing, and it's sad to watch stubborn pride jeopardize children's safety. If you live in Korea it's common to see small children bouncing around the car unbuckled, or crawling between the seats, or wedged against the rear window. A few years ago I was riding in a car with a family and the mother let their 10-month-old lean in between the driver and passenger seat. Then she gave him to me, in the front seat, to hold.
Actually, parents have exhibited their own ways of taking care of babies during the Mad Bull Shit rallies. While protesting the danger of American beef, some parents brought their babies to the frontlines of the violent protests, and were lauded as heroes in some quarters for their sacrifice and commitment.
8 comments:
I'm not surprised that an area filled with highly-educated workers such as Daedeok-gu in Daejeon had such a high compliance rate. It's also a group of people very likely to a) have lived abroad in a Western country or b) be from another country. Nice to see we're making the news for something good.
There *are* different laws for traffic safety around the world. I've wondered myself if someone riding a motorbike from Vermont to New Hampshire would remove their helmet once crossing into NH, where helmets are not required by law.
I'm appalled by the lack of attention paid to children's safety around the world and in different situations. Is it really a cultural thing? Is it a different way of thinking? I don't know, but there seems to be a general avoidance of the realities of cause and effect.... especially with safety issues.
My students are *not* allowed to rock on their chairs. If they do, and they inevitably fall and hurt themselves, I can only point out that I warned them not to do it... it's a different example from traffic safety, but some kids here don't even look both ways before crossing the street.
Found it...
Was sent to me by a friend when I was shaken up by seeing that toddler hit by the car outside my apartment:
http://www.safekids.org/members/korea.html
I e-mailed them and asked them for lesson plans or information, but haven't heard back from them at all.
We we came to Korea with our then 20 month old we had our car seat. I was quickly told by my director that,"We don't use those here." I had to hold the car seat from sliding around in the truck that didn't have back seat belts at all. Now me and my husband are human seat belts when we ride with our now 33 month old. We have already begun trying to think of ways to make the car seat fun for when we go back home.
When foreigners comment on Korean culture it's often considered condescending and inappropriate. But I don't get how little attention can be paid to a child's safety. I understand that cars are considered relatively new here---aren't they new everywhere?---and that unlike the US they haven't been driving for three generations. But running into the streeth, or letting a baby crawl in the back of a car, or putting a carseat in the front seat *smacks forehead* is not only dangerously unsafe, it's counterintuitive.
Ms. Parker, I'd be interested in seeing those lessons if they ever get back to you. I think I might do some safety courses for my after school class next semester.
To be fair, the laxidasical (sp?) attitude isn't EVERYWHERE; at Gwangju Station a few weeks ago there was a little gallery of drawings done by local elementary school students on the importance of crossing the street safely. But man, just this morning I watched my students take off across the road without even looking . . . I've got to start being an adjosshi and scolding them, because Xenu knows nobody else is doing it.
I remember commenting on Korean traffic safety on the waygook.org site last year, about how Koreans stop less at reds than others. One Mokpo Kiwi woman, who shall remain nameless, bit my head off, which is why I stopped commenting on that site. Good for you Brian for digging up these facts and proving how dangerous Korea can be.
I used to try and convert people about his all the time. And then one day I was watching the news and there was a report about a traffic accident where X people had died. I of course started chuntering about Korean people not wearing seatbelts at which point the report continued by saying that two kids (now orphans) had survived because they weren't wearing seatbelts and fallen into the floorwell and avoided being crushed by whatever rammed them. Still, I'm sure seatbelts kill less people than they save...
I blogged some years back (I reckon December 2006) about a programme that had a segment on safety where they spent a shitload of time trying to teach people how to get off buses safely without being hit by a motorbike. The theory was that so many people were being killed by just stepping straight off the bus without looking and getting hit by a motorbike undertaking the parked bus. They had such a bee in their bonnet about this and yet miss the obvious things like rear seatbelts...
After seeing Korea's lack of traffic safety firsthand for more than a decade, I sometimes have to wonder if the country isn't just one big Darwinian experiment gone awry.
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