Seoul City to Partially Suspend Bus Operations for Negligence in Alcohol Management

Negligence in Checking Alcohol Consumption of Transport Workers Confirmed as Violation of Passenger Transport Business Laws
Suspension of Operations for 16 Violating Vehicles and Deployment of Reserve Vehicles for Replacement Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The Seoul Metropolitan Government announced on the 4th that it has pushed for an administrative sanction to suspend operations for 30 days on 16 vehicles of the '4318 Pungnap route' bus company, which was found negligent in alcohol management after being caught for drunk driving in June 2019.

Immediately after the drunk driving incident, Seoul conducted an on-site inspection of the bus company and confirmed violations of the Passenger Transport Service Act, which bus companies must comply with. Upon reviewing the company's alcohol measurement management logs and CCTV footage, Seoul secured evidence that the company was negligent in verifying whether drivers were under the influence of alcohol.

Based on the data obtained through the on-site inspection, Seoul plans to enforce the partial suspension of business operations for 30 days starting March 1, in accordance with Article 21, Paragraph 12 of the Passenger Transport Service Act and its enforcement decree.

Additionally, to alleviate inconvenience to citizens caused by the suspension of the 16 vehicles on the 4318 Pungnap route, Seoul plans to deploy 16 reserve vehicles from nearby bus companies located at Songpa Public Garage and Gangdong Public Garage as a substitute operation measure.

Seoul intends to conduct surprise inspections on all city bus companies to prevent recurrence of drunk driving incidents. Reflecting public sentiment calling for stricter penalties on drunk driving and to ensure the safety of many citizens in advance, Seoul will continuously propose to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport to strengthen the drunk driving penalty provisions for operators under the Passenger Transport Service Act.

No Byeong-chun, Director of the Bus Policy Division at Seoul City, stated, “Regardless of whether an accident occurred, any bus company negligent in alcohol management will be severely punished even for a single violation. We will do our utmost to prevent such incidents that threaten citizens’ safety from happening again by mobilizing all possible measures at the city level, including surprise inspections, business improvement orders, and deduction of evaluation scores, so that bus companies can more thoroughly manage and supervise their employees’ drunk driving.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.