Gwangju Fire Department's Daily Situation Reports 'Inconsistent,' Criticized for Undermining Citizens' Right to Know

Death 'Omission' and Only Minor Accidents 'Disclosure'... "Major Accidents Must Be Transparent and Public"

Official: "Over 1,000 Cases Reported Daily in Japan, Operational Limits... Will Review Carefully"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Jin-hyung] The disaster and safety right to know of citizens in the Gwangju area is being restricted due to 'rubber band administration.'

The Gwangju Fire Headquarters publishes data on '119 Fire Safety Activity Status,' which summarizes major firefighting activities such as residential fires, fall accidents, and traffic accidents, daily on its official website.

The major firefighting activities include summaries of 3 to 5 accidents filtered by severity that occurred during the day. Minor cases are only recorded in statistics.

However, there are criticisms that the criteria for judging major accidents are inconsistent, as lighter incidents are reported while major accidents are omitted, causing the 'order to be reversed.'

In fact, around 10:30 p.m. on the 28th, a man in his 20s driving under the influence hit a pedestrian and caused death on a road in Wolsan-dong, Nam-gu, and then collided with six vehicles including cars and motorcycles, but this accident was omitted from the fire department data.

Instead, a triple collision occurred around 9:47 a.m. on a highway in Unam-dong, Buk-gu, where one person sustained minor injuries, and this case was classified as a major accident. The lightly injured patient reportedly walked independently and underwent X-ray examinations at the hospital to which they were transported.

Earlier, around 2:10 a.m. on the 26th of last month, a 20-year-old university student driving under the influence hit a teenage motorcyclist who had fallen after riding ahead at an intersection in Nongsung-dong, Seo-gu, resulting in death, but this accident was also omitted from the data.

It appears that similar fatal traffic accidents are managed 'at will,' with some cases being disclosed and others not.

A citizen, Lee (34), said, "To properly guarantee the right to know, related manuals should be established," and suggested, "I hope access to news about major accidents becomes more transparent."

In response, a Gwangju Fire Headquarters official explained, "One to three teams within the 119 comprehensive situation room take turns preparing related data," adding, "In this process, rather than objective indicators, the subjective judgment of the person preparing the data has a greater influence."

He continued, "On average, 1,200 119 calls come in daily, and about 500 cases involve paramedic dispatch, so it is difficult to make in-depth judgments on each case due to operational limitations," but added, "We will review the data more carefully going forward."

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