Infrastructure failures raise safety concerns
A derailed KTX train lies across the tracks in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, Saturday. Fifteen of the 198 passengers onboard suffered minor injuries. / Yonhap
By Lee Suh-yoon
An underground fire blacks out communication, a hot water pipe bursts, a KTX train derails ― a string of high-profile infrastructure failures have plagued the nation in recent weeks, making Koreans question the safety and reliability of basic services they once took for granted.
Poor maintenance and disaster prevention measures were common factors in the incidents. In the fire at KT's network tunnel, which cut off hundreds of thousands from phone and internet connections, Nov. 24, the telecom company did not have a worker stationed there or an automatic fire response system. Similarly, the Dec. 4 pipe rupture in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, which unleashed a scalding flood that claimed one life and left thousands of households without hot water or heating for hours, could have been prevented with regular inspections.
Saturday's derailment of a KTX train on the new Seoul-Gangneung line, which opened a year ago in time for the 2018 PyeongChang Winter Olympics, did not occur out of the blue. It was the 10th incident to occur on tracks operated by the state-run Korail in just the last three weeks.
Fifteen aboard the Seoul-bound train suffered minor injuries, as the two front cars completely jumped the tracks. The latest incident, which could have been a large-scale human tragedy, was the last straw for many citizens.
“What is the point of riding the expensive KTX if it can't even guarantee the minimum level of passenger safety?” asked Hong Young-key, 23, a university student who sometimes uses the KTX train to visit his hometown in Busan. “I don't know how they allocate their budget but they should be investing the most on track maintenance and safety personnel.”
The government is looking into why the rail switch signal on the tracks malfunctioned and to what degree human error was responsible for the incident.
Experts say the recent occurrences reveal a lack of adequate investment in the safety and maintenance of critical infrastructure by public and private companies in charge of their operations.
“The operators consider spending on safety and maintenance to be a drain on their resources because it does not yield an economic product,” Kong Ha-sung, a professor at Woosuk University's Fire and Disaster Prevention Department, told The Korea Times.
“That's why many try to cut labor costs related to hiring maintenance staff and use subcontractors instead. But subcontracted workers are usually less experienced and less specialized in the task than directly hired workers. The subcontractors do the safety checks and maintenance work with fewer workers and in the fastest time possible, so they can also make a profit.”
Large-scale accidents will become more frequent unless the operators start allocating more budget to maintaining existing infrastructure in good shape, Kong added.
The budget allocated for infrastructure directly maintained by local and central governments is not satisfactory either.
“Right now, the allocated budget is insufficient to keep the city's basic infrastructure in good repair, especially with aging,” an official at the Seoul Metropolitan Government's safety management bureau said.
The Seoul-Gangneung KTX line came back into operation Monday morning. It will operate at speeds up to 40 kilometers per hour, lower than its maximum, near the accident site until safety checks are completed.
The Ministry of the Interior and Safety plans to hold a strategy meeting with relevant government bodies Thursday regarding the series of infrastructure safety failures.