11 Derailment Accidents This Year... Where Are Korail's Safety Measures Heading?

Mugunghwa Train Derailment One Day After Obong Station Accident... 34 Passengers Injured
Won Hee-ryong Criticizes, "Everything Must Change from One to Ten"

Amid the Mugunghwa train derailment accident, on the 7th, Korail emergency recovery team members are carrying out restoration work on the tracks near Yeongdeungpo Station in Seoul. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoon Seul-gi] One day after the fatal accident at Obong Station, a Mugunghwa train derailed, injuring 34 passengers. With major accidents occurring two days in a row, an emergency has been declared for Korail's safety management. Won Hee-ryong, Minister of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, pointed out, "Korail, where accidents never stop, must change everything from one to ten."

According to Korea Railroad Corporation (Korail) on the 7th, at around 8:52 p.m. on the 6th, the Mugunghwa train bound for Iksan, which departed from Yongsan Station, derailed while entering Yeongdeungpo Station, injuring 34 out of 279 passengers.

Currently, restoration work is underway on two of the six tracks at Yeongdeungpo Station, causing some trains to be suspended or to operate with changed departure and arrival stations. Until the accident is fully resolved, no trains, including KTX, will stop at Yongsan and Yeongdeungpo Stations. Korail expects the restoration work to be completed after 4 p.m. on the same day.

This year, a total of 11 derailment accidents have occurred at Korail. According to the 'Train Derailment Accident Status' submitted by Korail to Heo Young, a member of the National Assembly Land, Infrastructure and Transport Committee from the Democratic Party of Korea, a total of 10 derailment accidents occurred as of September this year, and including this accident, the total is 11.

Earlier, Minister Won held an emergency railway safety meeting on the 3rd and instructed a complete review of the railway safety system. However, just two days later, on the 5th, a Korail employee in his 30s was fatally struck by a locomotive at Obong Station in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province, and another was injured, followed by this derailment accident.

At this meeting, Minister Won gathered the presidents of Korail, SR, Shinbundang Line, Airport Railroad, and the chairman of the Korea Rail Network Authority, stating, "Instead of an attitude of evading responsibility, we need to take a stance that we ourselves are ultimately responsible for public safety," and urged, "Please keep in mind that if any public enterprise or institution is sincere only about self-protection and blames others for safety accidents, the public will not tolerate it."

Korail President Na Hee-seung responded, "We are steadily implementing measures to prevent recurrence of the two derailment accidents," and said, "We will manage to ensure that similar accidents never happen again." He also announced plans to strengthen and invest in double and triple safety facilities to prevent serious accidents and to operate an emergency safety task force (TF) led by the head of the Safety General Headquarters directly under the president, dedicating all efforts to special inspections and measures. However, the measures proved ineffective as incidents and accidents occurred consecutively shortly afterward.

Minister Won criticized the recent series of railway accidents, saying, "Korail, where accidents never stop, must now change everything from one to ten." The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport stated on the 6th that "Minister Won has instructed to do everything possible to minimize passenger inconvenience." The ministry also explained that it has deployed the Railway Safety Policy Officer, Railway Safety Supervisors, Railway Police, and an accident investigation team to the site, while forming a railway disaster response team to do its utmost in handling the accident.

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