Gyeonggi Province Establishes Comprehensive Plan to Create 'Safe-to-Ride Gyeonggi Buses'

[Suwon Ilbo=Reporter Park No-hun] Regarding the traffic accident that occurred on a Paju city bus on January 19, Gyeonggi Province has rolled up its sleeves to prevent recurrence by establishing a 'comprehensive plan for traffic accident prevention in the bus sector.'

According to the Province on the 29th, traffic accidents and casualties involving buses in the province have shown an overall downward trend, from 6,416 accidents with 40 fatalities and 10,841 injured in 2016 to 4,895 accidents with 24 fatalities and 7,953 injured last year (Source: Bus Mutual Aid Association data).

However, as casualties from bus traffic accidents continue to occur and residents' anxiety persists, the Province's position is to implement extraordinary measures to ensure that residents never again lose their lives in traffic accidents.

To this end, the Province will pursue projects in various sectors including enhanced responsibility for bus operators, facility improvements, strengthened inspection and education, and system improvements, with plans to reduce traffic accident fatalities involving buses to 'zero' by 2025.

First, the Province will introduce a 'service safety rating disclosure system' during the first half of this year, evaluating the service safety of bus operators and assigning grades from A to E, which will be disclosed to passengers. Bus operators with lower safety ratings (D-E) will be subject to intensive management including special education and constant inspections.

For bus operators that have caused major traffic accidents, the Province plans to reduce incentive financial support by 50 percent or more, and further restrict business plan changes such as new route establishment or vehicle expansion for the relevant operators.

Strong measures will also be taken including imposing penalties on such operators when recruiting new limited license business operators, including public buses.

Additionally, the Province plans to strengthen management and supervision by conducting self-inspections and random unannounced inspections on various safety devices installed in and on vehicles and buses, including door open/close devices (sensors), use of reclaimed tires, seatbelts, fire extinguishers, passenger emergency escape hammers, advanced stability devices, emergency automatic braking systems, and in-vehicle CCTV.

Furthermore, this year the Province will invest approximately 4.665 billion won to support the installation of various advanced safety devices such as emergency automatic braking systems, exit door CCTV cameras, and driver monitors on intercity buses, express buses, and general buses throughout the province.

At the same time, the Province plans to pilot a brain wave-based driver condition monitoring system starting this year.

The Province plans to continuously inspect whether bus operators comply with the 「Labor Standards Act,」 strengthen sanctions against violating operators, conduct monthly inspections on guaranteed rest time for transport workers, and implement administrative measures against violating operators, thereby improving working conditions for transport workers.

Finally, the Province plans to recommend to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport amendments to the 「Passenger Car Transport Business Act」 so that transport workers can confirm whether passengers are seated and whether they have completed disembarking before departing the vehicle.

Additionally, the Province will also recommend shortening the implementation cycle of precise driving tests for elderly drivers as a way to address residents' concerns.

In addition, the Province plans to implement various other measures including designating and operating 'traffic safety officers' for each bus operator and strengthening accident prevention education for transport workers (visiting education, traffic safety experience education, etc.).

Park Tae-hwan, Director of the Transportation Bureau, stated, "For operators that fail to ensure even minimum passenger safety, we will impose strong penalties, and for operators working to prevent accidents, we will provide incentives. Going forward, we will thoroughly supervise and inspect bus operators to ensure that such unfortunate incidents do not happen again."