Confession of survivor from bus accident
A victim of the Puil Foreign Language High School’s bus accident is being carried off a burned bus. / Courtesy of Ubiquitous Gyeongbook News
By Jeong Ji-su
Kim Eun-jin, a survivor from Puil Foreign Language High School’s bus accident, confessed her thoughts upon the Sewol ferry disaster to Yonhap News Wednesday.
On July 14, 2000, a bus with Puil’s freshmen crashed into a car, resulting in a chain collision of five vehicles, leaving 18 students dead and 97 wounded.
Kim was unconscious for a bit but recovered when her friends helped her out of the burning bus. However, she told Yonhap that she has a trauma when she recalls memories of her friends covered in ashes trying to evacuate from the bus.
“I went through a similar incident before at about the same age of the Sewol ferry disaster’s students so I feel like I share the same magnitude of the burden that we must carry for the rest of our lives,” she said.
“After the accident, I was not only emotionally distressed but also physically torn down. I suffered from insomnia for six months and relied on alcohol, resulting in a gastric perforation.”
“People used to throw light jokes to me such as ‘we might get involved in a car accident if we are with her,’ and it really hurt.”
A lot of the students dropped out of school, and some parents of the sacrificed students got separated.
Kim stressed the importance of emotional therapy and advised the survivors not to feel guilty about the fact that they were spared.
She urged Danwon High School to make an annual commemoration to cherish the deceased to show that the school cares about them.
Kim told this story in the hope of alleviating the pain that the survivors and the bereaved family might feel.