`Keeper` of Traffic Safety, Choi Ju-Pil at Dongbu Insurance

Choi Ju-Pil (47. Photograph), the director of the Consultation Office in Dongbu Insurance Co.¡¯s Compensation Support Team, has been lecturing about the traffic safety in all parts of the country for 15 years.

Nowadays, he is busy with broadcasting schedules, lecturing at the public offices and companies, hosting various traffic related events. Hundred thousands of people have taken his lectures. If the number of people who have listened to and watched his lectures through radio and TV is counted, his audiences are expected to reach more than several million.

Choi, who is known as `a walking dictionary` on traffic, gives advises through his cell-phone, which keeps ringing until 11 pm, hoping that his phone-consultations could prevent a big traffic accident. ``Drivers tend to forget about their accidents after they let the insurance companies deal with the aftermath. Yet, they have to analyze the cause of the accident, such as wrong driving habits, or bad traffic facilities. My duty is to help drivers to have wide-eyes``, he said.

He had worked as a mechanic and as a lecturer at an auto-mechanic institute before he began to work for the insurance company. Thus, his lectures can cover a wide range of topics, such as the structure of a vehicle, insurance related matters, and means to avoid traffic accidents, etc..

He invests 4 or 5 hours every day to prepare for the `high-level` lectures on traffic. He applies the results that he has gained by analyzing accident cases, statistical resources, and the actual stories of accident victims in his lectures to augment his appeals to the audience.

Choi said, ``After I sold my car last year, I always use the public transportation seating next to the cab, or bus drivers. As I seat beside them, I analyze their driving habits taking memos to find out what kind of accidents can take place.``

Since he is fully occupied with the ideas of `traffic safety`, he always produces a lot of related ideas. The traffic accident photograph exhibitions, which were held at the national branches of the company in 1995, 1997, and 1999, were his ideas. He also decided to give lectures to the inmates, who would otherwise be driving in the future, imprisoned by the vehicular crimes.

``After taking my lecture, an inmate asked me to tell his story to the other inmates. I think it was worthwhile to create an atmosphere in which they could reflect and give advises to each other.``

There is a reason why Choi can take pride in having contributed to reduce the number of traffic accidents, which is decreasing gradually each year. He thinks that the traffic campaigns have begun to slowly take effect as the 2002 World Cup approaches.

``The fact that Japan, that shared a similar traffic culture in 70s as ours, has become an `advanced traffic country` due to the 10-year traffic campaigns, tells us that if Koreans become more thoughtful of the contents of the traffic campaigns, there will be a good result as we host the World Cup.``

Choi entered into a radio studio to record ``Choi Ju-Pil¡¯s Driving Memo`, which is broadcasted from 4:45 pm to 5:00 everyday through the Seoul Traffic Broadcasting System (TBS), showing a bright smile.

Choi Ho-Won bestiger@donga.com