USFK Orders Halt to All Training at Rodriguez Range After Accident Involving Armored Vehicle Kills 4 Koreans
This is a horrible accident and condolences to all the family members and friends impacted by this:
A crash involving a U.S. military vehicle killed four South Koreans, prompting U.S. Forces Korea to temporarily suspend training in the area, which is near the border with North Korea, officials said Monday.
An SUV carrying the four civilians rear-ended the armored personnel carrier – a tracked vehicle – at about 9:30 p.m. Sunday on a road near the Rodriguez Live Fire Complex in the city of Pocheon, local police and fire officials said.
The four civilians were pronounced dead at the scene, a fire official said. The two soldiers in the military vehicle were not seriously injured. One was taken to a nearby hospital for evaluation but was cleared and released back to his unit, according to the 2nd Infantry Division.
USFK expressed “its deepest condolences” to the families and loved ones of the deceased and said the military was fully cooperating with the South Korean police investigation into the crash.
Stars & Stripes
You can read more at the link, but I don’t think the Korean anti-U.S. leftists will be able to politicize this accident like they did with the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident. The fact the armored vehicle was rear ended makes it harder to blame the soldiers for the accident. However, USFK will fully investigate what happened with this accident and if there was any negligence I am confident people will be held accountable.
Statistically speaking, the people doing the rear-ending are probably at fault. In this case, they all immediately paid the price, and that’s unfortunate. As to whether the Korean justice system will see things that way… that remains to be seen.
“When a rear-end collision occurs, the responsible party is usually apparent. In the vast majority of cases, the driver of the vehicle in the back is the person responsible for the crash. Typically, the driver in the back could have and should have done something differently to stop sooner and prevent the collision.”
—source
Of course, Korean justice tends to mete out penalties in a “proportional” way instead of determining who is ultimately at fault, so the above will likely not apply.
Per Kevin’s point on proportional responsibility above, I’m guessing the 과실비율 will be set at around 8:2 or 9:1… RIP to the four people killed in the accident.
Unless the APC suddenly stopped without cause, it’s the fault of the dead driver of the SUV. “Traveling at an unsafe speed” and “Following too close” are how I was written up for a non-fatal traffic accident in 1976.
Not speaking ill of the dear departed. We all have moments of inattention. It is sad.
In the area we live now there have been accidents like this quite often. Twilight, Happy Hour, excessive speed, horseplay, texting, alcohol/drugs, and so many other contributing factors.
May God comfort the families and friends of the dead and give them peace. May God preserve the innocent, if any. May God grant wisdom to those in authority.
Wouldn’t be the first time Koreans have been following too closely. Condolences to the family but they were probably driving stupid.
From GI Korea: “You can read more at the link, but I don’t think the Korean anti-U.S. leftists will be able to politicize this accident like they did with the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident.”
There was another accident not too long after the 2002 accident involving the two school girls that was a cut and dried case of speeding, wreckless driving, and driving while drunk — that the anti-American activists still tried to make an issue of. If I recall correctly, the police had to barge into the funeral home to draw blood from the dead body to confirm that his blood alcohol level was over the limit. This incident was likely covered here at RokDrop.
From Kevin Kim: “Of course, Korean justice tends to mete out penalties in a “proportional” way instead of determining who is ultimately at fault, so the above will likely not apply.”
More to the point, since it occurred during training while the soldiers were conducting official duties, per the SOFA, this likely won’t even go to the Korean justice system.
You can bet on that they’ll cry out for compensation though.
MBC will have a news special on tonight about how the American vehicle backed into the law abiding Korean car….this time of night Korean driver most likely drunk.
Also, besides the SUV driver probably being drunk how does this happen as convoys move with Korean police escort, whoop lights flashing etc, etc.
Or JTBC will find some crooked dashcam footage. I read there’s reports that the KNs actually switched drivers in motion or the passenger was steering wheel?!?
When I was serving in the 1980s guys talked about military vehicles being rear ended on the Autobahn, usually older men in sports cars driving about 100 kph faster than the military convoy vehicles. i understand it never worked out well for the sports car or the men.
@guitard, agreed the SOFA will protect these soldiers from any liability from the Korean legal system. The prior accident you referenced I vaguely remember that the drunk driver smashed into an Army Humvee while traveling through Pocheon. There was another incident as well when a LMTV hit a Korean civilian that was jaywalking in front of Camp Casey as well during this same timeframe.
The anti-US groups tried to make major issues out of these accident but neither resonated with the Korean public because the Koreans were clearly at fault unlike the 2002 accident which the girls were walking along the side of the road when they were hit by the AVLB. Much easier to demagogue the 2002 accident than other ones that have happened.