Bus Tragedy Near Incheon Bridge

Korea is a country where Final Destination scenarios abound. I’m astounded that the director/screenwriter of this Darwinian-laced franchise, James Wong, hasn’t thought of setting an entire installment in the ROK.

People of this timbre and variety that inadvertently cause the deaths of dozens — if not hundreds of people at a time — due to their carelessness or ignorance, are literally a dime a dozen in Korea. It’s almost as if these people have a spirit of death about them, and this is exactly what the FD franchise tries to capitalize on.

If it were not this 48-year-old 못말여 behind the wheel of a Daewoo Matiz™, arguably one of the most dangerous and unreliable cars on the road in Korea today due to its notoriously defective transmission that needs to be replaced almost every year or 10,000 miles — whichever comes first — compounded by such massive selfishness and inconsideration to others on the road, there are the others whose actions have caused the death of others without as much as an afterthought that read like a laundry list of death a la carte. To wit:

1) 1998: A Seoul-based kindergarten takes dozens of its young charges on a weekend excursion to the outskirts of Seoul. (The accommodations for these aged 5- to 6-year-olds are refurbished CONEX containers converted for use as trailers. The electrical wiring is ad hoc, leaving exposed wires hanging alongside the exposed painted metal surfaces of the containers.) The teachers/chaperones, at the behest of one recently recovered alcoholic who recently decided to make a new change in her life as a kindergarten teacher, quickly encourages the staff to put all the kids to bed, so they can have a soju party and bbq by the river. To make sure their little charges do not interfere with their drinking party and having a good time, the former alkie teacher makes sure that all the CONEX trailers are locked from the outside so the kids can’t get out. While she encourages the rest of the staff into drinking and singing by the river, several hundred meters away from the childrens’ trailers, an arc fire from the faulty electrical wiring starts inside the trailers, and is quickly accelerated due to the painted surfaces on the interior. All the children are incinerated to death before the carousing and drunk teachers are even aware of what’s going on.

2) 1995: 삼풍백화점 collapse – June 29, 1995: A chain reaction of stupidity and greed-based decisions cause the death of 501 people and the injuries of over 900 people in the largest peacetime disaster in Korea’s history.

3) 2004: Faulty wiring in several newly installed faux gas-lamp type electrical lighting in places like Apgujeong-dong and the Seoul Bus Terminal cause a short circuit and the fatal electrocution of unaware pedestrians as they cross over a fatal perimeter of of electrically charged sidewalk during a rainstorm.

4) 1980s-present: While PMCS (preventive maintenance checks and services) is standard operating procedure for any military personnel in the U.S. military who operates a military vehicle or weapons system as part of a gun crew, most ROK military, particularly of the older generation never had this type of training or instruction. As a result, tragic accidents that rarely happen elsewhere, have been a regular occurrence with ROK units for decades, to do heavy usage, but poor PMCS. Typical fatal military accidents that are common in the ROK:
-exploding artillery or mortar pieces: Due to poor PMCS and overall age of many of these weapon systems, ROK units have lost many personnel due to frequent explosions of poorly maintained artillery due to incompetence or poor training, mostly by reserve troops.

Any others?