As the market for personal mobility (PM) such as electric kickboards continues to grow, related traffic accidents are also increasing.
According to data received by Oh Young-hwan (Democratic Party of Korea) of the National Assembly's Administrative Safety Committee on the 27th, 3,421 PM-related traffic accidents occurred over the five years from 2017 to last year, killing 45 people and injuring 3,721.
From 117 in 2017, it increased to 225 in 2018, 447 in 2019, 897 in 2020, and 1735 in 2021. It has increased more than 10 times in five years.
During the same period, the total number of traffic accidents increased from 216,335 in 2017 to 217,148 in 2018 and 229,600 in 2019 before decreasing to 209,654 in 2020 and 203,130 in 2021.
The number of deaths from PM accidents surged from 4 in 2017 to 19 in 2021.
Due to the revision of the Road Traffic Act, PM drivers must have a driver's license from May 13 last year. However, if you have a type 1 and 2 driver's license, you can operate it. Unlicensed PM drivers will be fined 100,000 won, and driver's license acquisition will be banned for one year. If you drive on a kickboard on India, you will be fined 30,000 won. When riding a PM, you must wear a safety helmet, and more than two people cannot ride together. A fine of 20,000 won will be imposed for not wearing a safety helmet and 40,000 won for over-driving the capacity. PM cannot be driven on pedestrian paths such as sidewalks, and must be driven on the right edge of bicycle lanes or general roads.
However, accidents did not decrease as violations of the law continued even after the law was revised.
According to data submitted by Cho Eun-hee, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Safety Committee, the number of PM-related violations reached 136,000 in about a year (as of the end of June) since the revised Road Traffic Act took effect. As for the type of violation of the law, the most common was not wearing a safety helmet with 106,451. It was followed by 13,809 cases of unlicensed driving and 5,753 cases of drunk driving. On average, 286 cases of not wearing safety helmets and about 50 cases of unlicensed and drunk driving occurred per day.
The Korea Expressway Transportation Corporation's "Safety Standards and Operation Guidelines Considering PM Traffic Characteristics" aims to analyze factors affecting user safety, review relevant laws and systems at home and abroad through traffic accident statistics and existing literature surveys, and establish PM safety standards and operation guidelines. In particular, it will identify trends in the PM industry and changes in the number of operations and uses, and analyze traffic accidents, statistics by road type, environmental factors, and safety impact factors by PM model in detail. It also plans to derive traffic characteristics and implications through PM user surveys.
Through this, the Korea Highway Traffic Authority plans to present problems and improvements in the current safety standards and operating guidelines, and infrastructure design measures to enhance user safety and mobility.
According to the Korea Highway Traffic Authority's analysis of traffic accidents caused by drivers who boarded PM in 2020 by time zone, 149 cases occurred between 12 p.m. and 4 p.m. On the other hand, there were 245 cases from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and 207 cases from 8 p.m. to midnight, with more night accidents. Some argue that the speed of PM should be limited at night when it is difficult to secure visibility. Currently, PMs operating in Korea are designed not to exceed 25 kilometers per hour. Instead, there is no separate speed limit.
An official from the Korea Highway Traffic Authority said, "Although personal mobile devices have lights, they are darker and less luminous than cars and motorcycles, so there is a high risk of accidents in dark evenings or late-night hours, and it is not easy for pedestrians or drivers to identify personal mobile devices."
Writer: Grace Jun
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