Three Victims in Secondary Accident While Trying to Rescue Before Ambulance Arrival

Mother and Son Die in Secondary Accident While Helping Rescue

The four-vehicle pileup on the Gochang-Damyang Expressway, which resulted in three fatalities, has been revealed to have occurred during the process of the driver rescuing other injured victims before the firefighters arrived, adding to the tragedy.

On the afternoon of the 17th, a chain collision occurred on the Gochang-Damyang Expressway in Daedeok-myeon, Damyang-gun, Jeollanam-do, and the fire department is conducting rescue operations. As a result of this accident, three people died and five were injured and transported to the hospital. [Image source=Jeonnam Damyang Fire Station]

On the 18th, the Jeonnam Provincial Police Agency Highway Patrol and others reported that the driver of the sports utility vehicle (SUV), Mr. A (48, male), who died in the accident the previous day, was killed while rescuing injured occupants of another passenger car. At the time of the accident, a passenger car traveling in the second lane of the expressway collided consecutively with the guardrail and the central divider for unknown reasons and then stopped in the first lane.

The following SUV driven by Mr. A collided with this passenger car and then stopped in the first lane. Due to this collision, the passenger car was pushed back to the second lane by the impact. The passenger car was carrying Ms. B (37), a Vietnamese immigrant female driver, along with her eldest son Mr. C (7) and younger son Mr. D (6).

Instead of moving to the shoulder, Mr. A went out to rescue Ms. B and others who could not get out of the passenger car. Other drivers passing by the scene also joined the urgent rescue efforts. Judging that they could not leave the injured inside the vehicles stopped in the expressway lanes until the 119 rescue team and police arrived, they used their mobile phone lights to try to rescue Ms. B and the children.

However, at that moment, tour buses traveling in the first and second lanes respectively failed to avoid the vehicles stopped due to the earlier accident and crashed into them, causing the accident. As a result, Mr. A, Ms. B, and Mr. D died. There were a total of five injured, including Mr. C and four passengers on the tour buses, but fortunately, none of them were in life-threatening condition. Other drivers who had joined the rescue efforts with Mr. A narrowly avoided the accident.

Only six minutes passed from the moment the passenger car collided with the expressway guardrail to the time the fatal third accident occurred. Additionally, the accident site was on a curved section, and it had become dark as night fell. The accident occurred at around 7:10 p.m. the previous day at the 40 km mark toward Gochang on the Gochang-Damyang Expressway in Daedeok-myeon, Damyang-gun, Jeonnam.

The tour bus driver responsible for the fatal accident has been booked on charges of involuntary manslaughter under the Special Act on Traffic Accident Handling, and the police are investigating the exact circumstances of the accident.

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