People Power Party Yoo Sang-beom "You have to look ahead and be careful to keep a safe distance."

People Power Party Yoo Sang-beom "You have to look ahead and be careful to keep a safe distance."

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Yullip Lee = It is analyzed that the number of deaths due to highway traffic accidents during the holiday season is concentrated during the Chuseok holiday rather than the Lunar New Year holiday, according to People Power Party lawmaker Yoo Sang-beom, a member of the Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee of the National Assembly.

According to the National Assembly audit data submitted by Rep. Yoo from the Korea Expressway Corporation on the 24th, the number of highway traffic accidents that occurred during the recent six-year holiday period (2021 to 2026 Lunar New Year holidays) was counted as 195 in total.

These accidents resulted in 11 deaths and 158 injuries, resulting in a total of 169 casualties.

By holiday, 102 accidents occurred during the Lunar New Year holiday (26 days) over the past six years, resulting in 2 deaths (daily average of 0.08 people). During the Chuseok holiday (24 days), 9 people (daily average 0.38) died in 93 accidents, making the daily average number of deaths during the Chuseok holiday more than 4.7 times higher than during the Lunar New Year holiday.

Rep. Yoo's interpretation is that the combination of fall outings, mixed vehicles for graves, and long-distance driving at night led to a major fatal accident.

By cause of accident, 'negligence to look ahead' due to operating a smartphone while driving, searching the navigation system, etc. accounted for 113 cases (57.9%), well over half.

This was followed by ▲ 26 cases of speeding (13.3%) ▲ 19 cases of not securing a safe distance (9.7%) ▲ 15 cases of driver other (sudden lane changes, etc.) (7.7%) ▲ 14 cases of drowsy driving (7.2%).

As for accidents by route, the Gyeongbu Line had the most with 26 (13.3%), followed by the West Coast Line with 24 (12.3%) and the Central Inland Line with 23 (11.8%). Accidents that occurred on the top three major homebound routes (73) accounted for 37.4% of the total.

Rep. Yoo said, “Accidents on highways during the Chuseok holidays, when families travel together, directly lead to large-scale disasters such as serial collisions,” and added, “In particular, as fatal accidents are concentrated during Chuseok according to statistics, we must pay special attention to looking ahead and ensuring a safe distance, such as taking breaks every two hours when driving long distances and refraining from using smartphones even in congested areas.”