Traffic accidents involving fire engines and ambulances exceeded 1,000 over the past five years, resulting in more than 2,000 casualties, including civilians.

According to data submitted by the National Fire Agency to Representative Lim Ho-sun of the Democratic Party of Korea, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, a total of 1,073 traffic accidents involving fire engines and ambulances occurred from 2021 until last year.

By region, Gyeonggi Province recorded the highest number with 328 cases, followed by Seoul with 175 cases.

Accidents in these two regions totaled 503, accounting for 46.9% of the overall total.

By cause, failure to maintain forward attention was the most common at 409 cases (38.1%).

This was followed by misjudgment due to psychological factors with 156 cases, delayed detection due to environmental factors with 143 cases, and vehicle mishandling with 74 cases.

By road type, accidents on general roads accounted for 85.6% of the total with 918 cases, followed by 98 cases on other roads, 34 cases on expressways, and 23 cases on motorways.

Casualties resulting from fire engine and ambulance traffic accidents totaled 2,151 over the same period.

Among firefighting officials, 1 person was killed and 956 were injured, while among civilians, 8 people were killed and 1,186 were injured.

The National Fire Agency has previously issued relevant measures and guidelines a total of 20 times to prevent accidents on icy road sections during winter, intersection accidents, and secondary traffic accidents.

However, with an average of more than 200 fire engine and ambulance traffic accidents occurring annually and inattention such as failure to watch the road ahead identified as a major cause, critics point out the need for tailored prevention measures that analyze accident causes, locations, dispatch situations, and time zones.

Representative Lim stated, "Fire engines and ambulances dispatched to save lives must not lead to another tragedy," adding, "As there are limits to approaches that merely issue conventional safety reminders and guidelines, we must precisely analyze the causes of accidents and vulnerable sections to formulate effective on-site prevention measures."

(Photo: Yonhap News)