The number of people killed in traffic accidents here has almost halved since the turn of the century, when 10,236 people died on the roads, to 5,229 last year.
The overall number of accidents dropped from their 2000 peak of 290,481 to 226, 878 in 2010. Yet, Korea remains one of the most dangerous places in the developed world to drive or be a pedestrian.
In 2010, the last year for which international comparisons were possible, the nation had the dubious distinction of having the world’s highest road fatality rate in the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development.
Lee So-beom, a professor at the Department of Transportation Engineering at the University of Seoul, said that Korea’s problems with road safety stem primarily from its people, rather than infrastructure or vehicle standards, which are both good generally.
“Korea’s road environment is not bad compared to other countries. (In terms of) vehicles, it’s OK ― Korea is the fifth country in terms of the number of vehicles (produced) in the world, but the problem is the people.”
Korea’s rapid motorization ― the number of registered vehicles having rose from a little over 128,000 in 1970 to almost 18 million in 2010 ― coupled with a lack of education has resulted in a dangerous driving culture, he said.
“We have some problems in education. Not only learning knowledge, but we have to learn to respect our people. But in our education system that portion has not been emphasized,” said Lee.
“Changing human behavior is a long-term project, but our presidential period is only five years so nobody is concerned with (creating an) education system to change people’s behavior.”
The public’s poor adherence to the rules of the road also means that effective road features commonly used in other countries have little use in Korea, according to Lee.
“The stop sign is not popular in Korea. But the stop sign or yield sign is very popular in Europe and the United States… If people obey the rules well, then stop signs or yield signs are very effective in terms of an operational point of view and safety point of view.”
While driver behavior may be one of the main culprits in the country’s poor road safety record, experts also indentify deficiencies in planning and road maintenance, as well as other factors, as contributory causes.
“We have many blind intersections, especially in residential areas,” said Kho Seung-young, a professor at the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Seoul National University, adding that greater capital investment is needed to address road hazards.
“There is no control of intersections in residential areas. So there are many accidents between cars and pedestrians compared to other countries.”
Other safety problems arise from bureaucratic failures, according to another researcher in the field.
“Especially, the detail in installing traffic safety facilities is very bad in practice,” said Kim Won-chul, an associate research fellow at the Department of Regional and Urban Research of Chungnam Development Institute.
“This means that engineers do not obey the regulations of traffic safety facility installation. This is because the municipality and policy agency do not have administrative harmony.
“The incompatibility of these two bureaus comes from the fact that the budget is controlled by a municipality, and the management, including installation, is controlled by the policy agency. Eventually, the two bureaus blame each other for traffic safety problems.”
The Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs is currently implementing its seventh action plan to improve road safety in conjunction with the Ministry of Public Administration and Security and the National Police Agency. The plan aims to see road deaths reduced to 3,000 a year by 2016, bringing Korea in line with the OECD average.
“As Korea, is rapidly transforming into a car society, traffic safety and automobile safety have emerged as areas of attention. However, despite the commitment to continuous traffic and vehicle safety improvements, Korea lags behind in safe driving,” said a 