Loopholes in safety regulations caused Hongcheon daycare van accident

A five-year-old girl was run over and killed by a daycare center van backing up at a parking lot in Hongcheon, Gangwon on Friday morning. The driver did not see and ran over the child who was going into the daycare center while reversing the van with eight children and two teachers going on a field trip in the car. Selim Act that strengthened safety obligations of daycare vans after Kim Se-lim (3 years old at the time of accident) was hit by a van and died in March 2013, yet a child died again.

The van was installed with a rear detection sensor, but not a rear-view camera through which a driver could see what was happening behind the vehicle. The law was revised in 2014 to obligate daycare vans to install rear-view cameras. However, the van did not install a camera because it was registered as a daycare van in 2011 before the law was revised.

Considering the purpose of revision to enhance safety of children, vans already registered should have installed a camera as well. Strong safety regulations cannot prevent loopholes if complacent and inflexible attitudes persist in implementation. Transportation authorities and education institutions must ensure safety of children to cut of the vicious cycle of children losing their lives.