The ‘Itaewon Halloween Disaster’ controlled site and surrounding roads have been cordoned off since the 11th, and reporters and citizens are passing through the streets. Correspondent Junheon Lee
Before the 2020 Halloween festival, Seoul Transportation Corporation received an official letter from the Yongsan-gu Office requesting a non-stop trip, but it was confirmed that it was refused. The Special Investigation Headquarters of the National Police Agency, which is investigating the Itaewon Halloween disaster, is investigating why the construction and passing company did not stop even though passengers were crowded from the afternoon of the day of the disaster. Currently, the construction determines if there is any stopping without any manual, so improvement is indicated.
On the 13th, an official document obtained by the Kyunghyang Shinmun, requesting cooperation, such as passing through Itaewon without stopping on Halloween in 2020, said, “It is expected that a large number of people will visit Itaewon using Itaewon Station on New Year’s Day Winter. “There are concerns about the spread of the group 19 infection.” In the official letter, the Yongsan-gu Office asked her to stop at Itaewon Station during the night when crowds gather, and to intensively quarantine security guards and deploy them in subway stations.
The corporation refused the request to pass through Itaewon Station without stopping. I heard that the number of passengers expected to go on and off is small, so if the bus does not stop, the inconvenience to customers will become more serious. A construction official said, “At the time, the number of passengers was similar to normal,” and “inconvenience was expected in moving passengers, so we increased security personnel and put in extras.”
The special issue investigates whether the failure to stop the subway at Itaewon Station on the day of the disaster increased the scale of the disaster. At present, the police and the corporation are arguing against the request for a non-stop service on the day of the disaster. Yongsan Police Station said in a special investigation, “The head of the 112 Situation Department asked the construction work to go through Itaewon Station without stopping at around 9:38 pm, about 37 minutes before the accident, but the construction officials insisted on normal operation. “On the other hand, the corporation’s position is that ‘Yongsan Seo did not inquire if the subway stopped at Itaewon Station until about 11:11pm, about an hour after the disaster.’ The special issue also investigates whether the Yongsan-gu Office, which requested non-stop travel two years ago, did not request non-stop travel during this year’s Halloween festival, which is expected to attract larger crowds .
Some point out that the problem is that there is no manual for non-stop cars. Article 62 of the company’s management business regulations only stipulates that ‘the driver may pass through the station without stopping in consultation with the station manager if the safety of passengers is at stake due to passenger congestion, disturbances or unusual situations.’ In other words, there is no specific standard for ‘passenger congestion’ and ‘disturbance’.
Gong Ha-seong, a professor in the Department of Fire and Disaster Prevention at Woosuk University, said, “There should be a basic standard manual, but it may be a problem to do it in a normal way.”
A construction official said, “It is vague to set a quantitative standard (for passing without stopping),” and “the size of the station, whether there is a transfer or not, and the structure of the platform is all different for each station. , so it is difficult to set it uniformly.” When asked if each station should have detailed regulations, he said, “As in the case of a rally, it is difficult to set regulations because the number of people who flock to a station at different times can be flexible.” It’s okay to control it.”
