Accident at a ‘drowsy rest area’ on the way home for Chuseok… Who is responsible?

Safety facility ‘drowsy rest area’ actually causes conflict… Limited authority responsibility
Experts say, “Management entity safety device structure must be improved and guidance strengthened.”

The Chuseok holiday is a time of great national migration. There is a space for tired drivers to take a moment to catch their breath. It is a ‘drowsiness rest area’. Although it is a safety facility installed to prevent drowsy driving, it has recently been pointed out that it has become a source of accident risk and responsibility disputes.

Safe space becomes a ‘blind spot of responsibility’

During the Chuseok holiday, people are especially vulnerable to drowsy driving and secondary accidents due to long distance driving. According to the Korea Expressway Corporation, a total of 167 traffic accidents occurred during the Lunar New Year and Chuseok holidays over the past five years. Of these, 109 (65.3%) were accidents due to drowsiness or lack of attention.  During the same period, a total of 13 people died in holiday traffic accidents, and three of them lost their lives in secondary accidents, which have a fatality rate more than six times higher than regular accidents.

The problem is that sleepy rest areas, which are supposed to prevent such accidents, are becoming another danger zone. A sleepy rest area is not a simple parking lot but is classified as a temporary rest area. Many places have structural problems such as short and sharp entry/exit roads, unclear internal movement lines, and insufficient lighting, so collision accidents occur frequently while entering, reversing, or cutting in.

In fact, accidents involving collisions between entering and reversing vehicles frequently occur in sleepy rest areas during the holiday season. In this case, even if the victim raises structural problems with the facility, in most cases, driver negligence is assessed as the greater fault during the dispute process.

Currently, the management of highway drowsiness rest areas is the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport and the Korea Expressway Corporation. However, unless a serious defect in facility management is clearly proven, the responsibility of the management entity for accidents within the shelter is often limited. Since most accidents result from driver negligence, victims are easily caught up in liability disputes without proper compensation.

Lawyers specializing in traffic accidents point out that there are blind spots in protecting victims. Kim Min-soo, an attorney at Daeryun Law Firm, explained, “If a defect in the installation or management of a drowsy rest area is the cause of the accident, the ‘installation and management of the permanent structure can be held responsible’ under civil law. However, in most cases, the negligence of the driver is considered first, so the reality is that it is difficult to recognize the responsibility of the management entity.”

Expert: “Facility improvement and guidance must be strengthened”

Experts emphasize that active improvement efforts by management entities are necessary. Heo Eok, director of Gachon University's Safety Education and Training Institute, suggested, "As the drowsiness rest area is managed by the Korea Expressway Corporation, accident cases should be categorized and notified to drivers, and safety devices such as pedestrian road dividers and speed bumps should be sufficiently equipped. We also need a system that guides precautions when entering and immediately shares information in the event of an accident."

Regarding this, an official from the Korea Expressway Corporation said, “To prevent accidents in the drowsy rest area, we are operating safety facilities such as guidance signs and color lanes to guide lanes, and we are also providing on-site safety management and processing support in the event of an accident.” However, he drew the line, saying, “Dispute resolution, including calculation of fault ratio, is the responsibility of the insurance company.”

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Accident at ‘drowsiness rest area’ on way back home during Chuseok… Who is responsible? (Shortcut)