A December survey found that roughly 30% of Korean drivers didn't wear seatbelts, and observational evidence indicates the number is much higher for passengers. Hell, cab drivers push the seatbelts under the cushion, and if you buckle-up in the backseat many Koreans will protest that they're good drivers. If dramas can cause people to buy kiwis or go to New Caledonia, maybe the special that will air tomorrow night in it's stead could encourage people to buckle-up.
7 comments:
"Hell, cab drivers push the seatbelts under the cushion ..."
OMG, this is SO true and it drives me NUTS! I mean, someone had to go through the process of physically manoevering the seatbelt under the seat/seat covering just so ... what? My fashion sensibilites won't be offended by the sight of a seatbelt? The taxi diver won't feel like someone is insinuating that he might have an accident? My butt doesn't get brusied from sitting on a seatbelt? I just don't get it.
Makes. me. crazy.
(deep breath)
Okay, I'm fine now. Thanks. :P
I think that's a "your mileage may vary" kinda thing, too. I rarely ride in taxis, but I've had taxi drivers (all in Seoul or Kyŏnggi) insist we all wear our seat belts. But, yeah, I have seen plenty with the seat belts tucked away. Are they expecting the backseat passengers to be horizontal or something?
Non-use of seat belts is just plain stupid. About half of the Koreans I drive will put them on automatically, versus about two-thirds of the Westerners I drive in Korea. But the difference is that if I turn around and assertively ask the passengers to put them on, some of the Westerners give me lip and refuse.
After one person who wasn't buckled up flew into my seat when I had to brake suddenly, causing me to jolt forward and nearly have my foot slip off the brake, I have been ADAMANT that people wear seat belts in my car, to the point of telling an American friend to get out and take a taxi because he refused to wear a seat belt.
Kushibo is a hardass about safety.
It would be nice if Gu Hyesun's cut up face could serve as a warning, especially if she does some PSAs or something while her cuts are still there (even better if the cuts all heal completely), but I don't know if it'll work. Maybe for some it will be an object lesson, but others will ignore it — I'm a safe driver, I don't have accidents.
Back in the Sŏngsu Bridge collapse — in which a lot of people who fell actually survived — you could see that one (unbuckled) guy had bounced into his windshield, which is probably what killed him.
That said, driving a motorcycle anywhere in Korea is far more deadly than riding in a car without a seat belt. Yet lots of foreigners do that. Sigh.
Kushibo is a hardass about safety.
You sound like Mr. T, who I imagine is also very concerned with safety.
Nik, just a friendly warning, but I pity the fool who makes comparisons between me and washed-up 1980s pop icons.
Come on, nobody appreciates the cat with the Hye-sun hairstyle?
I've been saving that picture up since I first saw the series.
I was going to comment but, not having seen the show, I thought it was supposed to be a helmet.
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