The government plans to intensively manage high-risk locations where suicides repeatedly occur—such as buildings, bridges, railways, mountains, and rivers—based on data, while expanding customized safety facilities and detection systems.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it reported the joint inter-agency "Management Plan for Suicide Prevention Locations" during a Cabinet meeting today.

This measure was prepared as part of the "9 Major Suicide Prevention Measures" announced last May.

While suicides occur across a wide range of public and private spaces, such as buildings (74.7%), suburban areas like mountains and rivers (22.6%), and bridges and railways (1.1%), certain locations tend to see repeated incidents.

The government plans to select such high-risk locations to expand customized safety facilities and establish a data-driven management system linking everything from statistics production and facility installation to effect analysis and post-management.

First, for high-risk buildings such as high-rise apartments, the installation of automatic rooftop access doors that open automatically in the event of a fire will be expanded to not only new constructions but also existing buildings.

Medical institutions will push for safety facility improvements, focusing on inpatient rooms and restrooms, such as limiting window opening widths and increasing railing heights.

Among 24 frequent suicide bridges, safety fences and closed-circuit televisions (CCTVs) will be reinforced at 15 locations lacking sufficient safety facilities.

The distribution of artificial intelligence (AI)-based CCTVs capable of early detection of risky behavior will also be expanded.

To prevent track intrusion and passenger falls, screen doors will be installed in phases across 239 conventional railway stations with low-level platforms, while intelligent CCTVs will be introduced at stations where installation is difficult.

Mountains and rivers will also be intensively managed by reinforcing safety facilities such as CCTVs and expanding patrols around frequent suicide locations.

The government will also expand financial support for local governments that need to install suicide prevention facilities.

In addition, the Ministry of Health and Welfare's suicide statistics will be shared with relevant ministries and local governments to establish a pan-governmental management system linked from facility installation and prevention effect analysis to post-management.

Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Kim Yun-deok said, "Rather than uniformly controlling all spaces, this measure focuses on identifying locations where suicides repeatedly occur through data and combining facilities, monitoring, and patrols tailored to the characteristics of each location."

(Photo: Yonhap News)