Bus-sedan collision caused 106-vehicle pileup on Yeongjong Bridge

It has turned out that a 106-vehicle pileup occurred on the Yeongjong Bridge on Wednesday began because a tourist bus driver failed to find a sedan in front of the bus was slowing down due to a dense fog and rear-ended it.

Incheon Seobu Police Station announced on Thursday that at around 9:40 a.m. on the previous day, a 57-year-old tourist bus driver surnamed Shin was driving in the second lane at 3.8 kilometers on the Seoul-bound side of the bridge without keeping the safety distance (100 meters) and bumped a black Sonata sedan running right in front of the bus, causing the mass collision.

Having witnessed the first collision, a 60-year-old taxi driver surnamed Yoo moved to the third land from the second one but another tourist bus driver rear-ended the taxi and stopped on the third lane. Another 62-year-old taxi driver surnamed Han ran into the first taxi, and an airport limousine bus and multiple cars, which were following behind, were crashed into one after the other, all of which resulted in a 106-vehicle pileup within merely 10 minutes.

This was analyzed by police who divided the entire path of mass collision (approx. 1.2 kilometers) into three groups and retrieved black boxes from 10 vehicles in the first group at the very front for investigation. It appeared that 12 automobiles were entangled in the second group and 84 vehicles in the third group, based on which the Police concluded that the collision took place in three main locations. Previously, police announced that it seemed Yoo’s taxi in the first lane crashing into Han’s taxi was the cause of the multi-vehicle collision.

Police will take legal action against five drivers in the first group including Shin and a 54-year-old tourist bus driver surnamed Kim on charge of forward-looking neglect (violation of safe driving duty) without maintaining safety distance. Police will also summon employers from New Airport Highway, a management company of the Yeongjong Bridge, to investigate whether the company took manual-based safety actions for vehicles that were running on the foggy bridge on the day of the accident. Additionally, police plans to conduct a fact-finding investigation on traffic safety facilities on the bridge and order to take proper measures if any facilities turn out to require such measures.

There were no additional death toll other than two drivers surnamed Kim (aged 51) and Lim (aged 46) in the second group but the number of the injured increased by 10 to a total of 73.