Increasing Delivery Raises Accident Risks for 'Iryuncha'... Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport Seeks Improvement Measures

On the afternoon of the 12th, when the Level 4 social distancing measures were implemented in the Seoul metropolitan area, delivery motorcycle riders were busy navigating the city.
[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Jiwon] The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport (MOLIT) will hold a public hearing to improve the management system for two-wheeled vehicles, whose accident risks are increasing.

According to MOLIT on the 19th, a public hearing on "Improvement Measures for the Management System of Two-Wheeled Vehicles," hosted by MOLIT and organized by the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, will be held at 1:30 PM on the 20th in the KORAIL conference room at Daejeon Station.

The public hearing will be held online in accordance with COVID-19 social distancing guidelines, and interested citizens can watch the live broadcast online and freely express their opinions.

Recently, with the activation of delivery services due to COVID-19, the demand for two-wheeled vehicles has expanded. However, unlike automobiles, two-wheeled vehicles are somewhat vulnerable in terms of safety due to structural characteristics such as the vehicle body, leading to an increasing trend in the number of accidents and fatalities.

Two-wheeled vehicle accidents increased from 20,898 cases in 2019 to 21,235 cases last year, and fatalities also rose from 498 to 525 during the same period. In contrast, automobile accidents decreased from 208,702 cases to 188,419 cases, and automobile accident fatalities dropped from 2,851 to 2,556.

Accordingly, MOLIT has prepared improvement measures for the management system of two-wheeled vehicles through overseas case studies and meetings with experts and industry representatives.

The improvement measures include strengthening the registration system, introducing a safety inspection system, enhancing maintenance expertise, and implementing a scrapping system, covering four key tasks.

At the public hearing, the vision and implementation strategies of the improvement measures will be presented, and opinions from related experts will be collected. MOLIT plans to finalize the proposal by September, reflecting the opinions presented.

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