When school zone rules are broken, children die

It has been almost three years tougher laws on school-zone safety were enacted, with punishments as stiff as life imprisonment for accidents that lead to a death. But innocents are still being injured and killed near their schools.

Students go to school with backpacks with 30-kilometer-per-hour speed limit reminders at Eonbuk Elementary School in Gangnam District, southern Seoul on Dec. 13 after a third-grade student named Lee Dong-won died in a school zone accident. [NEWS1]

It has been almost three years tougher laws on school-zone safety were enacted, with punishments as stiff as life imprisonment for accidents that lead to a death.

But innocents are still being injured and killed near their schools. In 2021, 496 accidents occurred in school zones, eight percent higher than the year before. Some were killed by drunk drivers.

Nine-year-old Lee Dong-won was one of them.

At 4:55 p.m. on Dec. 2, the third grader at Seoul’s Eonbuk Elementary School died after being struck by a sports utility vehicle (SUV) outside the back gate of the school.

A photo of Lee Dong-won provided by his mother. [LEE MOON-YOUNG]

The boy’s mother, Lee Moon-young, was at home waiting for her son to return from Friday after-school coding class. She received an unexpected phone call from his teacher.

“Ms. Lee, is Dong-won at home?” the teacher asked in a quavering voice. “I think you should call him.”

When Lee hurriedly dialed her son, the cellphone at the scene of the accident rang. The boy who had been hit couldn't be recognized because of the blood, and that was how the teacher realized who the victim was.

Lee jumped in the car to go to the hospital. She had just one traffic light left when she received another phone call saying her son was dead.

After smashing into Lee Dong-won, the 39-year-old driver of the SUV kept going and drove to his residence, which was 21-meters away. He came back 43 seconds later. His blood alcohol level was over 0.08 percent, high enough to have his driver’s license revoked. According to the prosecution, the suspect was an owner of a taxi company who lived in the area for many years, and was well aware of the neighborhood's steep and narrow roads.

He is awaiting trial on charges of hit-and-run, aggravated punishment for the death of child in a school zone and Driving Under the Influence (DUI).

Speaking to the Korea JoongAng Daily, the 43-year-old mother said stronger punishment is still needed for school zone accidents — especially by people who had been drinking.

“The essence is that a drunk driver who shouldn’t be behind the wheel got there and caused the accident,” Lee said.

“After Dong-won’s death, I looked up other drunk driving accidents,” Lee said. “Too many lives are taken by DUIs, while the drivers get ridiculously light sentences. So the habit of drinking and driving isn't fixed and people treat it lightly.”

Students at Eonbuk Elementary School gaze at the notes mourning the death of Lee Dong-won at a memorial set up at the accident site on Dec. 13. [NEWS1]

Korea has the so-called Yoon Chang-ho Law and Min-sik Law — named for two accident victims — which were created after egregious examples of drunk driving and traffic accidents in school zones.

Yoon Chang-ho was a 22-year-old Korean Augmentation Troops to the United States Army (Katusa) soldier, who was hit by a drunk driver in Haeundae, Busan in September 2018 while on leave. The accident left him brain-dead, and he eventually died 45 days later. Under the newly-created law, people caught driving under the influence two or more times are subject to two to five years in prison or fines between ten million ($8,000) and 20 million won. The Yoon Chang-ho Law came into force on Dec. 18, 2018.

The Min-sik Law was passed after the death of Kim Min-sik, 9, who was hit and killed by a car while crossing a crosswalk in front of his school in Asan, South Chungcheong, in September 2019. The law puts a speed limit of 30 kilometers (17 miles) per hour in school zones. It also calls for harsh punishments: a driver who kills a child under the age of 13 in a school zone can be sentenced to more than three years and up to life in prison. A person causing an injury to a child can be fined up to 30 million won or imprisoned up to 15 years. The law took effect on March 25, 2020.

The key to both laws was the raising of both minimum and maximum sentences for transgressors. The tougher punishments for drunk driving and accidents in school zones also promoted public awareness about their risks.

And yet the accidents keep happening.

A middle-age school security guard who has worked at Eonbuk Elementary School for four years, said, “Although there were no fatalities, there were big and small traffic accidents. I did expect some kind of fatal accident.”

“I always thought this school zone is really dangerous as students and fast driving cars are jammed together in a narrow road,” said a mother picking up her first-grade child. “I am always on alert whenever I come to pick up my child.”

Statistics prove children are still not safe in school zones.

According to data provided by Rep. Kim Nam-kuk of the Democratic Party sourced from the National Police Agency, the number of traffic accidents involving children below the age of 13 in school zones totaled 458 in 2020 and led to three deaths and 471 injuries. The Min-sik Law was enacted in March of that year. The following year, there were 496 such accidents, an increase of 8.29 percent. Those accidents led to two deaths and 513 injuries. From January to September 2022, there were 399 such accidents leading to one death and 398 injuries.

Despite tougher DUI regulations, the number of cases caught in DUI crackdowns is seeing only a slight decrease. According to the Road Traffic Authority, drunk driving accidents from 2017 through 2021 declined, partly because the Covid-19 pandemic forced people to stay home and not go to drinking parties.

DUI recidivism is also a problem. The recidivism rate, which was at 44.2 percent in 2018, escalated to 44.8 percent in 2021. In other words, more than four out of 10 drivers who were caught driving under the influence had already been caught in a DUI crackdown before.

“My family cannot cope with grief from losing our child and we don't know what to do in the future, but the only thing we can do for Dong-won is to make a change so that other children won’t suffer the same tragedy,” Lee said. “We believe punishing drunk drivers and promoting legislative activities to improve the school zone environment is a way to make sure our child's death was not in vain.”

Analysts say more fundamental solutions are needed to prevent school zone accidents.

“In Korea, there is an implicit understanding that cars take precedence over people,” said Jung Kyung-il, a traffic accident lawyer at law firm L&L. “But drivers should be aware of pedestrians and think that pedestrians always take precedence over them as in the United States.”

“These accidents will be repeated without a fundamental change in the perception of local governments, police, and drivers,” said Road Traffic Authority researcher Park Moo-hyeok. “Things like the convenience of drivers may be important, but the value of traffic safety should be put first, at least in school zones.”

Unbelievably, Korea is trying to ease current traffic regulations for school zones.

The Ministry of Government Legislation has recommended a relaxing of punishments for transgressions in school zones late at night, as fewer traffic accidents occur at those times.

A sketch by the mother of Lee Dong-won, a third-grader who died in a school zone crash, explaining the accident. Lee was killed by a drunk-driving car outside the back gate of the school. [SEO JI-EUN]

A wall next to the street where nine-year-old Lee Dong-won lost his life was filled with Post-its mourning his death and white chrysanthemums when The Korea JoongAng Daily visited on Dec. 15. Milk cartons, sweets, dolls and small heat packs were placed among the white flower bouquets amid the cold weather with temperatures recording below zero.

In Korea, people mourn by putting at memorials objects the deceased liked and might find useful in their afterlife.

“You were such a kind kid who helped friends having a hard time, but God is really bad to let a good person get hurt,” read one note, written by a sister of one of Lee’s friends. “As you fell into a deep sleep, the criminal will definitely be punished, so rest in peace.”

BY SEO JI-EUN [seo.jieun1@joongang.co.kr]