DANGEROUS SCREEN DOORS

[Anchor Lead]

Advertisements are installed on many of the platform screen doors at Seoul subway stations. But these floor-to-ceiling ad panels can undermine passenger and worker safety in emergencies. Unfortunately, Seoul Metro hasn't kept its promise to fix this problem. We bring you the details.

[Pkg]

Platform screen doors open simultaneously with subway doors when trains arrive at a platform. The glass panels on either sides stay put. One side is actually an emergency exit that can be opened in emergencies by pushing out from the inside. But the other side is fixed in place with an advertisement panel. When a train stops at a spot where the screen doors are blocked by an ad panel, passengers cannot make their escape in the case of an emergency.

[Soundbite] HAN IN-IM(CIVILIAN COMMITTEE FOR GUUI STATION ACCIDENT) : "A few seconds of delay during evacuation could lead to many people losing their lives."

There were quite a few accidents in which technicians working on the other side of the fixed screen doors were hit and killed by trains. In 2015, the Anti-corruption and Civil Rights Commission recommended replacing the fixed doors with movables ones. Seoul Metro promised to remove all fixed doors by the end of 2018 and secured nearly 40 billion won in budget from the central and Seoul governments. What changes have been made to the screen doors nearly six months past the 2018 deadline? Only 65% of all the fixed doors have been replaced, because some of the advertisements still had up to nine years left on their contracts.

[Soundbite] (SEOUL METRO EMPLOYEE(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "If we arbitrarily remove the doors with advertisements, it could cause trouble with the advertisers."

Seoul Metro is also furtively reneging on its promise to remove all fixed doors.

[Soundbite] (SEOUL METRO EMPLOYEE(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "In case of emergencies, people can evacuate through 88% of the doors since fixed doors only account for 12%."

Since the job hasn't been completed as planned, Seoul Metro has to return the hard-won budget soon. For the time-being, passenger safety has been trumped by business contracts with advertisers.