“78% of rescue accidents in national parks occur on ‘non-legal trails’”

Park Soo-min "We need to make it public to discuss how to charge fees for rescues from reckless hikers on side roads."

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Yullip Lee = Most of the disasters in national parks occur on side roads, which are non-legal trails, and it appears that a significant amount of money is being spent on rescues.

According to the status of distress and rescue from 2022 to August of this year submitted by the National Park Service on the 10th to Rep. Park Soo-min of the People Power Party, a member of the Climate, Energy, Environment and Labor Committee of the National Assembly, 49 out of 63 cases (77.8%) were calculated to have occurred on non-legal trails.

Of these, 26 were fatal accidents, or half. On the other hand, out of 14 distress and rescue cases that occurred on the regular trail, there was only 1 death.

The corporation's helicopters used for distress rescue have operated for an average of 174 hours over the past five years, and an average of 1.86 billion won has been spent on fuel, maintenance, and labor costs.

When calculated per hour, the average operating cost is 10.3 million won.

By year, ▲ 190 hours (KRW 1.179 billion) in 2022 ▲ 194 hours (KRW 1.05 billion) in 2023 ▲ 157 hours (KRW 2.898 billion) in 2024 ▲ 200 hours (KRW 1.987 billion) last year. As of August this year, the corporation's helicopters operated for 132 hours, and 1.919 billion won was invested in fuel and maintenance costs.

Entry to non-legal trails is restricted or prohibited in accordance with the Natural Parks Act, and violations are subject to fines.

Accordingly, 4,709 fines were imposed over the past five years.

Rep. Park said, “There is a need for public discussion on rescue cost claims in order to prevent the waste of public resources resulting from rescues due to reckless hiking on side roads.”