ed Lack of safety rules
Small-scale events exposed to various safety risks
Despite the tragic sinking of the Sewol ferry on April 16, safety-related blind spots remain. Friday’s fatal accident at an outdoor K-pop festival at Pangyo Techno Valley that left 16 dead and 11 injured was one such sadly typical safety mishap.
The accident occurred when a ventilation grate, on which people were standing to get a better view of a concert, collapsed at a time when there were no safety guards and 700 people were expected but more than 1,000 showed up.
But a closer look shows that such accidents are man-made calamities that can happen at any time. What’s shocking is that there are no safety regulations governing small-scale outdoor concerts that have audiences of fewer than 3,000 people like the one that took place in Pangyo.
This means that there are no safety guidelines to manage small-scale outdoor performances. In 2008, the government produced manuals for performance places stipulating how emergency exits are installed and safety personnel are deployed, but these only applied to indoor performances.
Safety guidelines for regional festivals, prepared by the National Emergency Management Agency in 2006, were intended for events that could attract more than 3,000 people, which suggests that outdoor performances attended by fewer than 3,000 people are not governed by any regulations. So the organizers of the Pangyo concert were not obliged to follow any mandatory safety measures.
This is indisputably wrong, especially given that there have been a growing number of small concerts and regional festivals where the presence of idol groups can attract throngs of people. One cannot help but worry that accidents can happen at any time.
In October, the month of culture, local governments are due to host about 1,200 cultural events and festivals across the country without due preparation, but it’s no exaggeration to say that these events are exposed to various safety risks. Our concerns run deeper, taking into account that officials at local governments or volunteers who have not received any relevant safety education are deployed to keep order.
More lamentable is that government units habitually shift the responsibility for disasters among themselves. The latest concert mishap was no exception. As soon as the accident occurred, Gyeonggi Province, Seongnam City, police and the fire station soon became busy blaming others in order to avoid responsibility.
The recent string of accidents is also attributed to Koreans’ strikingly low awareness about safety issue. According to a survey of citizens on safety awareness conducted by the Hyundai Research Institute in August, nearly 95 percent of the respondents said that Koreans lack safety awareness.
What’s needed first is to prepare elaborate safety regulations that can be observed readily by citizens in every section of society. If these rules are violated, harsh penalties should be imposed. Of course, regulations and examinations won’t be enough to prevent safety accidents. Only when improvements in awareness are realized, can we expect the nation to become free of fatal accidents.