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| Flowers are seen at a memorial altar for victims of the Oct. 29 Itaewon crowd crush tragedy at Itaewon Station, Thursday. Korea Times photo by Shim Hyun-chul |
By Lee Hyo-jin
Bereaved families of victims of the Itaewon crowd crush on Oct. 29 are moving to take class action against the government, seeking compensation over its botched prevention and response to the disaster.
Good Lawyers, a Seoul-based law firm, is encouraging the families of the 156 who died in the tragedy to take part in the collective lawsuit against the central and local governments.
"Grieving for the victims has been our top priority, but now that the facts about what happened that night are being disclosed, we cannot hold back our anger against the central and local governments' incompetence and their attempts to evade responsibility," read the statement from the law firm.
"Compensation claims against the state and local governments (Seoul Metropolitan Government and Yongsan District Office) are technically the only way victims and their bereaved families can exercise their legal rights," it said.
Eight people have joined the collective legal action as of Friday, according to Jeon Su-mi, an attorney handling the case. Jeon, who is a member of the policy committee of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DPK), served as the party's deputy spokesperson last year.
"We are reviewing to seek compensation from the central government in accordance with the act on the duties and performance of the police. And Yongsan District Office and Seoul City can be held accountable under the Framework Act on the Management of Disasters and Safety," Jeon told The Korea Times.
She said the law enforcement agency's poor handling of the incident, even though public harm was anticipated due to the surging crowd size, could be seen as a violation of related laws.
According to the police, a total of 11 emergency calls were made before the incident began at 10:15 p.m., with the first call placed at 6:34 p.m. The police, however, did not take sufficient measures in response to the repeated calls.
The lawyer also noted that families of foreign victims have also reached out to her. Among the 156 deaths, 26 were foreign nationals from 14 countries.
"I have received calls from families of victims of three different countries," she said, without specifying their nationalities.
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