The government held the 14th “Three Major Project Inspection Councils to Protect People’s Life” at the Sejong Government Complex on the 23rd, checked the implementation and performance of each ministry to reduce the number of traffic accidents, industrial accidents, and suicide deaths, and discussed future directions.
The three major projects to protect national life have been promoted since 2018 with the goal of reducing deaths by half in three major areas related to national life: transportation, industrial accidents, and suicide.
“Protecting the lives of the people is the most important and basic responsibility of the government,” said Koo Yoon-chul, head of the Office for Government Policy Coordination. “Efforts to reduce deaths will continue regardless of the government’s changes.”
In the event of a drunk driving death accident, the disqualification period is extended by 5 years → 10 years.
First of all, in the field of traffic safety, the total number of traffic accident deaths decreased 32.4% from 4,292 in 2016 to 2,900 last year (temporary). It is the lowest level since statistics were compiled and the first in history to enter the 2,000 range.
This is the result of 10 traffic safety measures, the enforcement of the Yoon Chang-ho Act and the Minsik Act, and the safety speed of 5030. In detail, deaths related to children (66.2%), drunk driving (65.3%), and pedestrians (41.1%) decreased significantly.
However, despite these achievements, the number of deaths per 100,000 population was 5.6 (2021), less than the OECD average of 5.2 (2019). By field, pedestrians, the elderly, and motorcycles still remain at the lowest level in the OECD.
In response, the government plans to continue to promote the reduction of traffic accident deaths and establish and promote the 2022 Traffic Accident Death Reduction Measures to become a top OECD traffic safety advanced country.
Life-friendly roads such as residential areas and shopping malls with a large amount of walking will be designated as “pedestrian priority roads” and the vehicle speed will be limited to 20 km/h or less to ensure pedestrian safety. In order to guarantee the priority of pedestrian traffic, drivers are obligated to slow down and temporarily stop on the back road where pedestrians and roads are not separated, and to temporarily stop “when pedestrians try to cross” on the crosswalk.
The period of restricting re-acquisition of a license (5 years → 10 years in the event of a death accident) will be increased, and the system will be improved to apply a progressive fine for habitual high-risk drivers such as speeding.
A standard ordinance is prepared to expand the scope of designation of elderly protection zones. The government plans to secure the effectiveness of protected areas by promoting mandatory installation of crackdown equipment (speed limit and CCTV, etc.) in protected areas (revision of the Road Traffic Act). Smart crosswalks that can extend walking signals according to the walking speed of the elderly, who are vulnerable to transportation, will be expanded around elderly protection zones, and safety facilities specialized for the elderly (central walking island, etc.) will be actively expanded.
A full investigation is also conducted on two-wheeled vehicles with unclear reporting information. The management system will be strengthened by establishing a reporting system and introducing a safety inspection system, maintenance business, and scrapping system. In addition, the number system of two-wheeled vehicles will be reorganized and high-tech equipment will be introduced to increase the effectiveness of crackdowns on two-wheeled vehicles that violate laws and regulations.