[Anchor]

It has been revealed that one out of every three fatal accidents on back roads, where sidewalks and roadways are not separated, occurs when pedestrians are lying or sitting on the road. These accidents were particularly frequent at night and on narrow roads.

Reporter Lee Tae-gwon has the details.

[Reporter]

Late at night, an object suddenly appears on the road ahead of a vehicle driving along a two-lane road.

It was a man in his 40s lying on the road.

He is what is known as a "stealth pedestrian," sitting or lying on the road where drivers have difficulty spotting them.

An analysis of 105 fatal accidents on back roads without separated sidewalks and roadways by the Samsung Traffic Safety Research Institute showed that 30 percent of them were such "stealth pedestrian" accidents.

The accidents were concentrated on roads lacking adequate pedestrian space, with roads between 3 meters and under 6 meters wide seeing the highest number at 22 cases.

While 41 percent of all back road fatal accidents mainly occurred during nighttime hours between 7:00 PM and 7:00 AM the following morning, the nighttime proportion for stealth pedestrian accidents reached 62.5 percent, which is 1.5 times that of general pedestrian accidents.

By season, accidents occurred relatively frequently in autumn and winter, which is analyzed to be a period when outdoor activities by pedestrians are frequent and the likelihood of drinking alcohol is high.

The research institute explained that to eliminate blind spots for pedestrians, it is necessary to physically separate pedestrian and vehicle travel spaces by installing protective guardrails and other measures.

[Lee Sung-ryul / Senior Researcher, Samsung Traffic Safety Research Institute: Through pedestrian recognition CCTVs and the like, we need to automatically issue warnings or enable immediate safety measures for stealth pedestrians through 119 or 112.]

The institute also emphasized that since accidents are concentrated at night, visibility improvements such as smart streetlights and illuminated signs are necessary.

(Camera: Joo Beom | Video Editing: Kim Jong-tae | Design: Kim Ye-ji)