To avoid repeat of Itaewon tragedy, government devises a plan

Six months after the Itaewon crowd crush that took 159 lives, the government is fleshing out the details to plug holes in public safety. The government may supplement the insufficient public safety workforce with retired public officials...

Police officers are on crowd control duty at the 17th Busan Fireworks Festival held at Gwangalli Beach in December 2022. [NEWS1]

Six months after the Itaewon crowd crush that took 159 lives, the government is fleshing out the details to plug holes in public safety.

The government may supplement the insufficient public safety workforce with retired public officials, according to the “Complete National Safety Plan Overhaul” report submitted by the Interior Ministry to Rep. Chung Woo-taik of People Power Party on Thursday. The plan is modeled after U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Reservist Program, which operates an on-call workforce to provide aid should a national disaster occur.

About 2,200 public officials were dispatched to Jinhae, South Gyeongsang, to control traffic and manage parking lots during the Jinhae Gunhang Festival held between March 25 and April 3. No safety issues were reported during the 10-day event, which was visited by 4.5 million people.

The safety plan includes the so-called “Korea Safety Rebuilding” program designed to address the weakness in public safety management by installing “intelligent” CCTVs that detect signs of danger by analyzing abnormal activity or sound.

The ministry plans to replace all CCTVs with the smart CCTVs by 2027 and increase investment for safety. According to FEMA, investing $1 in disaster prevention can save $6 of future disaster loss.

Police officers, wearing green vests, walk among the crowd to prevent safety accidents at a cherry blossom road in Yeouido, western Seoul, on April 2. [NEWS1]

The government will stipulate the roles and responsibilities of local government heads in early stages of a disaster through the overhaul. Park Hee-young, head of Yongsan District Office, put on trial for failing to minimize damage during the Itaewon crowd crush, claimed that she was not responsible for ensuring safety for no-host events such as the Halloween.

Park faces negligence of duty charges for failing to issue emergency alerts, dispatch response teams and control traffic that night.

The government aims to reduce the number of deaths from disaster and safety accidents down to 20 per 100,000 people within 2027. It was 26.2 in 2019.

The average for OECD member states was 22.1.

“The Itaewon disaster was a tragedy that should not have occurred,” said Chung, who sits as the National Assembly’s deputy speaker. “We have been reorganizing the existing national safety system and improved countermeasures through police probes and parliamentary investigations, but what matters is the on-site implementation.”

Chung called on the ruling party and opposition parties to quit turning disasters into political issues and cooperate to prevent future disasters.

BY KIM MIN-WOOK [sohn.dongjoo@joongang.co.kr]