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

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For drivers stuck in heavy traffic during the holidays, 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 crosses the sidewalk and charges directly into a building, smashing through a glass window and crashing into customers inside the restaurant.

In July of last year, at the Daegwallyeong Rest Area on the Yeongdong Expressway bound for Gangneung, a vehicle driven by a woman in her 80s plowed into the indoor restaurant area, 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, the Korea Expressway Corporation established a "standard rest area model" 10 годы 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.

Among the 24 rest areas where two or more accidents occurred, 17 had not yet applied the standard model.

This is a highway rest area in the capital area.

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

However, roads are still directly connected right in front of and behind parking spaces without pedestrian walkways, and regular crosswalks without speed bumps to slow down vehicles remain as they are.

When packed during holiday seasons, rest areas can become an unsettling place for both drivers and pedestrians.

[Lee Jae-hoon / Daedeok-gu, Daejeon: I always feel uneasy when parking because I could either become a victim or a offender.]

[Kwon Se-min & Yoon Ga-yeon / Jongno-gu, Seoul: Since we have to push a stroller and hold a baby's hand, I think we always had to be very careful and nervous getting all the way here.]

Safety facilities have been 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 crowd in, we must first inspect rest areas where accidents repeatedly occur and make necessary improvements.]

The Korea Expressway Corporation stated that it 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 by Lee Sang-hak | Video Editing by Lee So-young | Photo courtesy of the office of Representative Kang Dae-shik of the People Power Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.