10 Dead, 92 Injured... Growing Safety Concerns at Highway Rest Areas

[Anchor]

For drivers stuck in heavy holiday traffic, highway rest areas are a welcome place to relieve fatigue. However, it has been found that more than 100 accidents have occurred inside these rest areas over the past five years, resulting in 10 deaths.

Reporter Cho Min-ki has the story.

[Reporter]

A white SUV cuts across the sidewalk and plunges straight into a building, shattering the glass windows and crashing directly into customers inside a restaurant.

In July of last year, a vehicle driven by a woman in her 80s plowed into the indoor dining area of the Daegwallyeong Rest Area on the Yeongdong Expressway heading toward Gangneung, injuring 16 people.

A total of 108 traffic accidents have occurred at highway rest areas nationwide over the past five years.

Ten people were killed and 92 others were injured.

To reduce such accidents inside rest areas, Korea Expressway Corporation established a "standard rest area model" a decade ago, installing safety facilities such as pedestrian walkways in front of and behind parking spaces and speed-bump-style crosswalks. However, it was found that two-thirds of the rest areas where accidents occurred lacked these safety facilities.

Even among 24 rest areas where two or more accidents occurred, 17 of them had not applied the standard model yet.

This is a highway rest area in the metropolitan area.

Here, four traffic accidents over the past three years have left one person dead and three injured.

However, roads still connect directly to the front and back of parking spaces without any pedestrian walkways, and regular crosswalks remain in place without speed bumps to slow down vehicles.

During busy holiday seasons when crowds surge, rest areas can become an unsettling space for both drivers and pedestrians.

[Lee Jae-hoon / Daedeok-gu, Daejeon: Whenever I park, it is unsettling because I could end up being either a victim or the perpetrator.]

[Kwon Se-min & Yoon Ga-yeon / Jongno-gu, Seoul: Since we have to push a stroller and hold a baby's hand at the same time, I think we always came all the way here feeling nervous and paying close attention.]

Safety facilities have been fully installed at only about half of the nearly 200 highway rest areas nationwide.

[Kang Dae-shik / National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee Member, People Power Party: During periods like Chuseok when many visitors flock in, we must first inspect rest areas where accidents repeatedly happen and make necessary improvements.]

Korea Expressway Corporation announced plans to complete the application of the standard model to all rest areas by 2033, while urging visitors to exercise caution, such as driving at reduced speeds inside rest areas.

(Video reporting: Lee Sang-hak, Video editing: Lee So-young, Data provided by: Office of Representative Kang Dae-shik of the People Power Party)

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