"279 Reverse Driving Accidents Last Year... 17% Increase Compared to Previous Year"

1,297 Reverse Driving Accidents Occurred Over 5 Years
Seoul Has the Highest Number

[Asia Economy Reporters Seongpil Cho and Sehee Jang] Last year, a total of 279 wrong-way driving accidents were recorded nationwide. This represents a 16.8% increase compared to the previous year (232 cases).

According to the 'Wrong-Way Driving Accident Status' submitted by the National Police Agency to Lee Joo-hwan, a member of the People Power Party, a total of 2,047 casualties resulted from wrong-way driving accidents. This included 70 deaths, 613 serious injuries, and 1,364 minor injuries.

Looking at the trend over the past five years, there have been 1,297 wrong-way driving accidents. Notably, one out of every five wrong-way accidents occurred during nighttime driving between midnight and 6 a.m.

The area with the highest number of accidents was Seoul (301 cases), followed by Gyeonggi Province (245 cases) and Gyeongsangnam-do (88 cases).

By city, county, and district, Changwon-si in Gyeongsangnam-do recorded the most wrong-way driving accidents with 32 cases. This was followed by Guro-gu, Seoul (27 cases), Gangnam-gu, Seoul (23 cases), Suwon-si, Gyeonggi (22 cases), Ansan-si, Gyeonggi (21 cases), and Seocho-gu, Seoul (21 cases).

Of the 1,297 wrong-way driving accidents, approximately 20%, or 265 cases, occurred between midnight and 6 a.m.

Regarding this, Representative Lee stated, "The National Police Agency needs to manage data by conducting detailed analyses of major accidents to identify road sections where wrong-way driving accidents frequently occur and the causes of these accidents."

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