Korean Job Discussion Forums

[The Bobster]

I didn't see the actual collision, though my girlfriend did. What I saw was the pieces of the moped on it's side, sliding diagonally through the intersection and to the right of where our taxi was waiting behind another car for the light to change. And I didn't realize immediately what it was - it was after seeing the wreckage hit once more by another car that I understood it wasn't a garbage can or some piece of cargo that had fallen off a truck.

And then I looked back at the road immmediately ahead of us.

The young man, recent pilot of the moped, was just then getting to his feet. He was limping and did not succeed in finding a single direction for his feet to travel, nor did he seem to be aware of very much at all. He was moving around, though.

The young woman who had obviously been his passenger did not move at all, though. Both of them were dressed in white, and from a couple of dozen meters away she looked like nothing more than laundry. I can't say for certain, of course, but I feel no doubt in my mind that she died right in front of us.

The young man staggered back to her and seemed to be slowly figuring things out through the haze of his concussion. He knelt down next to her, put his arms around her and tried to get her to stand, and I was thinking, "No, no, don't try to move her, something could be broken and you'd cause more damge." I think it was already too late for this to be a concern, however.

The driver of the car that hit them had stopped in the middle of the street and was walking back to the scene along with his passenger. The young man shuffled his feet, still in a daze, and the taxi driver said something to my girlfirend about how they had plowed straight through into the traffic despite the signal light, and my lady, who had probably seen every fleeting second of it, kept murmuring, "Ottoke, ottoke ..."

I'm one of those people who have made frequent jokes about the fact that traffic lights are often no more than a suggestion in this country, a little like the prices quoted in the market stalls at Namdaemun. Not sure I'll make those jokes any more, and I'm sort of wondering how it is I've been able to live in this city for 5 entire years without until now having witnessed and accident like this right in front of me.

Although it was after midnight when our taxi made a cautious left turn after the light had changed and thereby put the painand carnage behind us, we were a little relieved to find that the local video shack was still open, and the sweet older couple who own it together listened to my woman tell them how terrible it was and then they helped us find something to distract us, as it was obvious that neither of us would get much sleep that night. She chose an Adam Sandler comedy and I'd got it in my head to watch Gladiator one more time. I found all the pompous masculinity about smiling back at Death's smiling face to be even sillier than the other times I've watched it. A life might or might not contain nobility, but death never does, not in my experience.

I have a fantasy about the afterlife, and it goes like this : we are all together in one place outside of space and at one time outside of time, all of us, every person who lived or ever will live. I'll be in the presence once more of those members of my family that have already passed on, and even those who are not yet born - I'll be able to tell my father, who died when I was 15, that I love him, and he'll say, "Yeah, I always knew it - and I know it right now."

Like a billion or so others already dead or not yet born, I'll shake Samuel Clemens' hand and let him know he's my favorite writer, and like a much smaller group I might let him know also that I think The Mysterious Stranger is far more interesting than Huckleberry Finn - maybe he'll agree. I might run into Beethoven and tell him how "Hey, it probably sucks that you wrote your best stuff after you'd gone too deaf to hear it," and maybe he'll say that "The upside is it probably sounds better in my head before those inept musicians got a chance to butcher it ... lotts of 'em do absinthe and worse, like opium, you know," and I'd say, "Whoa, dude, you gotta meet these cats over here, Miles and Mr Coltrane!" (Okay, bad idea. Those three guys might fight.)

I'll see everybody one more time, all of you, too, and I'll even see that girl whose body was lying limp and horribly still on the macadam last Saturday as we left the bystander pedestrians to hit the 119 on their handphones. I'll see her once again - maybe she'll say something dumb but true, like "Shoulda worn a helmet, eh?" or maybe she'll say something important and true, like, "A good life, but way too short ... you know?" - just as I'll see every person whose smile ever made me feel warm and every person who ever hurt me with malice and every casual stranger who ever made me scratch my head in puzzlement.

We'll all be together, just for a bit, and then we'll start to drift away, make our c'est la vie's, firefly-souls drifting in the breeze of the Bardol Thodol aether, each of us being drawn toward the pale blue light emitted in the tantric glow produced by copulating couples who might, just might, be about to create a new vessel, some vehicle that will allow us to take in the universe and be part of the true things for just another moment, back to the world where we can see, hear, touch, smell. And feel.

Just a fantasy, as anything else might be about what goes on in realms beyond what we can know. Just a notion.

I actually wasn't drunk when I wrote this. Wanted you all to know that.

[itaewonguy]

I remember hearing once when you drive through an accident never look back. I always wondered why that was?
was it because of the site of blood?
or was just the horror of it might do in your journey through life..

personally I think people should look!!
so that way not only will they act more safely and be educated better,
but it also will stop and make people think and respect their own lives more. of course this is more the adults...

bob when I experience something like this.. I too stop to ask the big questions and thank that I am alive..

OKTIKE as the koreans say.. well in western we have answers!!
so much more can be done to prevent this kind of things happening again.
but telling them to koreans is like talking to a brick wall..

might sound bad what I am going to say now..
but its too bad that the girl her may of died wasnt the ministy of transports daughter.. that might WAKE HIM UP and start to do something about the education or road safety...

R.I.P

[Universalis]

Tough experience, Bobster.

I've lived here 7 years and I'm amazed that I've yet to see anything similar. You're right... we joke about Seoul's terrible drivers, but it's a serious, serious issue... people are dying as a result.

Unfortunately, it's my belief that Koreans are happy with the status quo, otherwise, they would do something about it. So there's not much that you or I can do about it...

Brian

[just because]

I've seen a few dingles here in my time but no deaths.

I hope the driver of the car gets what is coming to him and didn't run.

Even reading that makes my heart sink.

[dogbert]

Beautiful writing inspired by a tragic event.

[Zyzyfer]

Amen on the driver getting what's coming to them. Road safety actually has improved to some degree since I first came here, and I do see cops doing more traffic-related duties, but some people are so obsessed with themselves and where they've got to be that they forget about the rest of the world flowing around them.

[kiwiboy_nz_99]

Who was it who ran the light? The taxi or the moped? I wasn't clear from the story.

This place is really tragic when it comes to traffic, and it's something I've raged agaist ever sinse I came here. I think one of the main reasons a lot of us don't see so many crashes is that most of us don't own cars, and so take the subway a lot. Just a guess.

I've posted on this. Korea has been top or top three for worst road death toll per capita in the developed world for the last 15 years. Reap what you sow. That doesn't mean I'm not sorry for the people involved. But it's something us waeguks can't do much about. They have to change the driving culture, seriously. Problem is, the way they drive is so rooted in thier whole culture. It's going to take a massive education campaign, and serious clamping down of enforcement. I just can't see Seoul putting the funds and manpower into it. Until of course, a high ranking city official gets a son killed or something.

[Mashimaro]

Be careful out there. My gf laughed at me when I used the seatbelt in the back seat of the taxi, saying that you only have to use a seatbelt in the front seat... hmm

I won't take a bus in korea if at all possible, I keep off the insanely dangerous roads as much as I can.

Even if I could afford a car I doubt I'd drive. Assuming I trusted korean drivers when sober(doubtful) there is too much soju swilling going on to believe theres not a lot of DUI happening.

Maybe this sounds paranoid to some, in many ways I'm probably less scared of dying than many. I just see koreans and cars as a bad mix.

The fact my old korean roommate was the worst driver ever probably has something to do with it.

Australia has it's share of bad and drunk drivers too, but especially in rural areas people learn to drive much earlier and the standard on the whole is not too bad.

[Sleepy in Seoul]

I was walking to work once past a pedestrian crossing. There was an ambulance stopped in the middle of the road (a big, wide road with only the slightest hint of a bend in it), and an ambulance man was washing blood off the road with a bucket of water.

There was a paint outline of the body on the road for months afterwards.

I just assumed that it was a taxi driver who cleaned up a pedestrian.

I have always made sure that every car stops before I even put my foot on a pedestrian crossing after that.

[itaewonguy]

at my apartment complex there has been major construction going on for the last 3 years.. they have pretty much built a whole city around me..
last week a 12 year old boy got ran over by a truck! and I mean a TRUCK
he was on his bike... and he got taken out.. so there are vigils and protests going on around my apartment these days..
its crazy when these things that shouldnt happen,, happen..

[ryleeys]

These things happen, sad to say.

Will Korea or even a few Koreans learn from it? I doubt it.



Taxis and cars will continue to run red lights.

Buses will continue to honk at other cars for not running red lights.

Mopeds will continue to weave in and out of traffic and sidewalks.

Cars will continue driving without headlights in the city.

Buses will continue bullying other cars and pedestrians.

People will continue riding 3 to a moped with the women's legs to one side.

Mopeds will continue driving on sidewalks.

Turn signals will continue being as foreign as English.

Police will continue to do nothing about traffic violations.


Welcome to Korea, enjoy your stay.

[peemil]

I'm only one foreigner... I've been driving here a long while now... Motorbikes and cars. I've lost it... I just get out of the car and tell them when they are in the wrong when I have my chance.

I'm 6' 1". Built like a brick shithouse. Koreans don't mess with me...

Bobster. Sorry you had to see that. But it's a reality. First day here it was the first thing I saw. Woman run over.

Fact is. Koreans drive like idiots. I've never seen worse.

My advice is. If the taxi driver is driving like a nut. Tell him. Someone beeps you from behind at a red light. Get out and tell him so.

The problem is here is that no one corrects each others behaviour. You know at home if you did something stupid everyone driving past you would share their opinion of you. Too, you'd probably have cops on you too...

[rapier]

The intersection near my appartment is host to an accident every fortnight or so. I've only seen one that looked really serious- the car was practically crushed and left in the middle of the crossroads while traffic streamed on around it. I didn't notice anyone get out of that either.

Pedestrians are also at risk- drunk drivers don't pay much heed to lights or zebra crossings, I'm always very careful crossing, green light or no.
Fortunately the police have begun breathalysing regularly along our road.

Benn in 2 car accidents already, I know how easilly it can happen, I'm always wary, and don't plan on a third...

[The Bobster]

[eamo]