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mayorgc
Joined: 19 Oct 2008
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 Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 7:57 pm Post subject: buckle up on the airport limo |
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http://joongangdaily.joins.com/article/view.asp?aid=2922710
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The killed passengers included a Korean-American and 11 Koreans. Tweleve other passengers including an American and a Mongolian were injured.
According to Incheon police, who conducted an on-site inspection yesterday, the bus crashed through a guardrail as it tried to avoid an incapacitated Daewoo Matiz in the middle of Incheon Bridge and plunged 10 meters (30 feet) at 1:19 p.m. on Saturday. Photos and television footage showed the severely wrecked bus lying on its roof below the bridge.
Investigators said the driver of the Matiz had engine trouble and stopped her car in the middle lane of the three-lane-road. The driver, surnamed Kim, 46, got out of the car, walked to the shoulder of the road and called her insurance company. |
The stupidest car crash I saw in Korea involved a woman driving a small car (matiz?) who some how changed lanes into the rear of a stopped bus. Her car was just crumpled and she just sat in the car, on the phone, refusing to get out. I think she was too embarrased to show her face. |
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Milwaukiedave
Joined: 02 Oct 2004
Location: Goseong
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:00 pm Post subject: |
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| Next time I take one of those buses, I'll be buckeling up. |
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nobbyken
Joined: 07 Jun 2006
Location: Yongin ^^
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:04 pm Post subject: |
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| I think under the seats is the best place to be. |
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confucian
Joined: 13 May 2010
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 8:05 pm Post subject: |
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| I'll keep taking the airport railroad, thanks. |
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tsteele
Joined: 30 Oct 2008
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 9:10 pm Post subject: |
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| I got on one of those buses at the airport recently, and before setting off the driver made it a point to walk through the bus and tell us to put on our seat belts. The Korean driver. in Korea. I know, I was floored too. |
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waynehead
Joined: 18 Apr 2006
Location: Jongno
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 9:16 pm Post subject: |
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| I'll be taking one in a week or so. Thanks for the reminder to put safety first. |
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DeMayonnaise
Joined: 02 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 10:34 pm Post subject: |
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Really tragic accident. Here's the worse part
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| The accident orphaned a 7-year-old boy, Lim Seong-jun, after his parents, his 3-year-old sister and 10-year-old brother were killed. |
That's awful. |
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dumpring
Joined: 06 Apr 2010
Location: Auckland, NZ
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| Posted: Mon Jul 05, 2010 11:31 pm Post subject: |
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| Criminal stupidity to first: Own a god damn matiz f*box. And second: Stop in the middle of the motorway instead of pulling onto the shoulder when she noticed her car slowing down. |
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nautilus
Joined: 26 Nov 2005
Location: Je jump, Tu jump, oui jump!
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| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 12:48 am Post subject: Re: buckle up on the airport limo |
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| mayorgc wrote: |
The stupidest car crash I saw in Korea involved a woman driving a small car (matiz?) who some how changed lanes into the rear of a stopped bus. Her car was just crumpled and she just sat in the car, on the phone, refusing to get out. |
Problem is they do not move the vehicles to the side of the road after the accident. Instead they leave them on the spot so that a police officer can take photos and determine which driver was responsible.
It apparently doesn't matter that they cause a ten-mile tailback for the next 3 hours. |
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b-class rambler
Joined: 25 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 1:40 am Post subject: Re: buckle up on the airport limo |
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Investigators said the driver of the Matiz had engine trouble and stopped her car in the middle lane of the three-lane-road. The driver, surnamed Kim, 46, got out of the car, walked to the shoulder of the road and called her insurance company. |
She stopped her car in the middle lane? Or her car stopped in the middle lane? The article the OP linked is very ambiguous.
From other news stories that I've seen, I'm under the impression that her car stalled in that position and that she was unable to get it going again. If that's what happened then there may be issues of negligence in her possibly driving a vehicle that wasn't roadworthy. You could also argue that considering she'd been aware at the tollgate just a few moments before that her car had something wrong, she should've avoided the middle lane and kept to the right in case the car broke down.
But the people saying she should have put up her warning triangle 100m behind the car are just not thinking straight. Doing that when you've come to a halt in the breakdown lane is fair enough. But if your car is stuck in the middle lane of an expressway, who in their right mind is going to brave oncoming traffic at 100+km/h on either side of them to put up a warning triangle? Leave the hazard warning lights on, get the hell out of the way and call to alert the authorities is about the best you can do in those circumstances if you can't move the car.
I don't dispute that the Matiz driver has some responsibility here, but the bulk of it has to surely go to the truck and bus for not driving at a speed and keeping a distance back that was appropriate.
Buckle up on the airport limo? Of course, absolutely. But you should buckle up in ANY vehicle you ever travel on a public road in. And that's why the police and the Korean traffic authorities generally have to take some, albeit indirect, responsibility for the deaths IMO. Because if seat belt laws were enforced by police officers who actually wore the damn things themselves, and people were educated through publicity and awareness campaigns as to why you should ALWAYS wear a seat belt wherever you're seated in the vehicle, then probably several of the 12 dead wouldn't be. |
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DeMayonnaise
Joined: 02 Nov 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 2:36 am Post subject: |
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The article seems pretty clear to me.
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| When the Matiz passed the tollgate the driver noticed there was something wrong, and parked on the shoulder of the road. A tollgate worker told her not to drive until it was fixed, but she insisted on proceeding and her car stopped again [after 300 meters]. |
She stopped her car cause something was wrong. Official tells her to stay put, she doesn't listen and 300 meters later it stops again, this time in the middle of the highway, and results in 12 deaths. Sounds like criminal negligence to me. They're trying to put blame on the truck driver and bus driver too, but this ajuma holds most of it. |
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mayorgc
Joined: 19 Oct 2008
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| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 3:50 am Post subject: Re: buckle up on the airport limo |
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| nautilus wrote: |
| mayorgc wrote: |
The stupidest car crash I saw in Korea involved a woman driving a small car (matiz?) who some how changed lanes into the rear of a stopped bus. Her car was just crumpled and she just sat in the car, on the phone, refusing to get out. |
Problem is they do not move the vehicles to the side of the road after the accident. Instead they leave them on the spot so that a police officer can take photos and determine which driver was responsible.
It apparently doesn't matter that they cause a ten-mile tailback for the next 3 hours. |
she refused to get out because she didn't want to face the bus driver, who was outside. I wasn't talking about moving the vehicle. |
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b-class rambler
Joined: 25 Mar 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 4:17 am Post subject: |
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| DeMayonnaise wrote: |
The article seems pretty clear to me.
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| When the Matiz passed the tollgate the driver noticed there was something wrong, and parked on the shoulder of the road. A tollgate worker told her not to drive until it was fixed, but she insisted on proceeding and her car stopped again [after 300 meters]. |
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If that's all the article said about the Matiz coming to a halt in the middle lane then that would indeed be perfectly clear. But it also said the bit I quoted, which suggested that it was her that stopped the car in the middle lane(i.e made a deliberate decision to herself bring it to a halt there rather than the car itself not being physically able to go any further). Hence the ambiguity of the article.
FWIW, from various other news sources I've seen about this, my assumption of what happened is the same as yours. But the writer of the article needs to brush up on transitive and intransitive verbs 
My hunch is that the speed and recklessness of the truck and bus are the major factors, although they do not absolve her of blame, obviously. But it's impossible to say for sure as there are things we don't yet know about how the bus and truck were being driven.
Relatives of the dead have also asked for the safety of the road to be considered as a factor. I think that's fair enough and having driven many thousands of kms on Korean expressways it strikes me as having perhaps been another (of several) contributing factors. It's easy to be wise after the event, but it still seems reasonable to ask if a pretty feeble 83cm high guard rail was really appropriate to protect from a considerable drop from an elevated road. |
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atwood
Joined: 26 Dec 2009
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| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 5:06 am Post subject: |
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All three are probably at fault to a degree, except maybe for the bus driver.
But I see this all the time driving in Korea where people just leave their car in the middle of the road if there's an accident--fair enough, waiting for the police--if they break down--they should push it to the side of the road, again tough because all those "friendly, kind and generous Koreans" won't slow down to let them cross lanes and no one will stop to help them push--or they're lost and they just stop in the middle of the road while they figure out/call someone for directions--no excuse.
But until the police in Korea actually enforce traffic regulations, rather than relying on traffic cameras and speed bumps, these kind of accidents/problems will continue. And people will continue to die in avoidable accidents. |
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CentralCali
Joined: 17 May 2007
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| Posted: Tue Jul 06, 2010 6:05 am Post subject: |
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| atwood wrote: |
| or they're lost and they just stop in the middle of the road while they figure out/call someone for directions--no excuse. |
My first co-teacher pulled that stunt on the expressway, after sunset. Brilliant. |
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