"Preventing Vehicle Crashes into Buildings": Yongin City Mandates Installation of Protective Barriers

[Anchor]

Accidents involving vehicles crashing into restaurants or cafes, leading to casualties, occur repeatedly. To prevent such incidents, Yongin City in Gyeonggi Province has become the first in the nation to mandate the installation of "collision prevention facilities."

Reporter Yoo Young-soo has the story.

[Reporter]

In August of last year, in front of a restaurant in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, a passenger vehicle suddenly accelerated and crashed into the restaurant's glass window.

The accident resulted in one restaurant patron losing their life and six others sustaining injuries ranging from minor to severe.

As similar accidents continue to occur, many people are feeling anxious.

[Yoo Hong-young/Restaurant Patron: The risk of accidents is always lurking, and we see it on the news very often. So, I continue to feel anxious about those things.]

[Jeon Yong-jun/Restaurant Owner in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province: If a customer visiting my shop were to suffer such an incident, how would I handle it, and what kind of emotional toll would it take on me? Would I even be able to continue running the business properly if something like that happened?]

To prevent casualties from vehicle-into-building accidents, Yongin City enacted an ordinance mandating the installation of collision prevention facilities, which went into effect in March.

The ordinance requires the installation of structures capable of withstanding a direct impact from a 2-ton vehicle traveling at 20 kilometers per hour (12 miles per hour) between parking spaces and buildings.

The regulation applies to ground-level auxiliary parking lots of buildings, such as restaurants or cafes, with a floor area of 300 square meters or more.

[Choi Nak-ki/Team Leader, Yongin City Parking Operations Team: (Cafes and restaurants) often prioritize aesthetics, so they frequently use glass doors or walls. There is a higher possibility of injuries when (a vehicle) crashes into such buildings.]

However, the installation mandate applies only to new buildings, while owners of existing buildings may decide whether to install them voluntarily.

(Video by In Pil-sung)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.