Since the enforcement of the so-called “Minsik Act (Road Traffic Act and the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes)” revised to reduce traffic accidents in child protection zones (school zones), traffic damage to elementary school students has decreased significantly in Gyeongnam.
The Ulsan Gyeongnam branch of the Korea Expressway Traffic Authority announced on the 28th that it summarized the current status of traffic accidents among elementary school pedestrians in Gyeongnam over the past five years.
From 2016 to 2020, 814 elementary school pedestrians in the province were injured in traffic accidents, and three died. The status of 2021 is expected to be released around the end of March.
By year of casualties, △ 205 in 2016 (2 deaths) △ 186 in 2017 △ 178 in 2018 △ 173 in 2019 △ 75 in 2020.
The number of casualties of elementary school students, which ranged from about 170 to 200, has decreased significantly to 70 in 2020. Compared to the previous year, it has decreased by about 57%.
It is estimated that it was affected by the full-fledged enforcement of the Minsik Act in March 2020.
The Minsik Act was proposed in September 2019 when Kim Min-sik (9 years old at the time) died in a traffic accident in a school zone in Asan, Chungcheongnam-do. The main point of the bill is to impose aggravated punishment on traffic accidents caused by death or injury due to careless driving obligations in child protection zones.
Of the 817 casualties of elementary school pedestrians in the province over the past five years, 73 traffic accidents in child protection areas were found to be relatively low, about 8.9%. The rest are traffic accidents outside the protected area.
An official from the Ulsan-Gyeongnam branch of Dogong said, “It seems that non-face-to-face classes caused by COVID-19 along with the influence of the Minsik Act played a role. “It seems that traffic accidents in child protection zones have decreased as two things were applied in combination during this period (2020).
In addition, the accident rate was 61.2% in the lower grades (1st to 3rd grades) of elementary school students, higher than 38.8% in the upper grades (4th to 6th grades).
The types of accidents include 624 people (76.4%) crossing, 49 people (6%) passing through the roadway facing each other, 20 people (2.4%) passing through the edge of the road, and 124 other and unknown (15.2%).
In particular, 354 out of 624 pedestrians (56.7%) had accidents on the crosswalk, and the remaining 270 (43.3%) had accidents outside the crosswalk. Outside the crosswalk refers to jaywalking.
By period, 28.6% of accidents occurred in the spring of March to May. It was 24.8% in summer, 27.7% in autumn, and 18.8% in winter.
Min Kyung-jin, head of the Ulsan-Gyeongnam area, emphasized, “Low grades of elementary school are not familiar with crossing roads and need continuous education and guidance on safe walking at school and home.”