One dead in 14-car pileup on icy road

[Anchor]

When the temperature drops suddenly like this, the roads can easily freeze, so you need to be careful while driving.

Today (Dec. 2), on a national highway in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, more than ten vehicles collided, resulting in one death and five injuries.

The cause of the accident is presumed to be 'black ice' on the road.

Reporter Lee Won-hee has the details.

[Report]

Vehicles are tangled on a road covered in thick fog.

The front hood of one vehicle is damaged, exposing the interior, and a vehicle that crossed the central divider has fallen into the opposite lane.

[Song Gi-yeop/Traffic Division Chief, Anseong Police Station: "We are predicting that there was some skidding. There was a bit of fog, and visibility was estimated to be around 200 meters at the time…."]

The collision between two cargo trucks on a national highway in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, occurred around 6 AM today.

A 1-ton cargo truck crashed into the central divider and collided with a 3.5-ton cargo truck coming from the adjacent lane.

As a result of this accident, the driver of the 3.5-ton cargo truck died, and 12 other vehicles that followed also collided, injuring a total of five people.

This is near the accident site.

Debris from the vehicles is still scattered, and part of the central divider is damaged.

The police believe that the accident occurred due to the vehicles skidding on the icy road, based on the driver's statement, and they suspect that the so-called 'black ice' formed thinly and transparently on the road.

Earlier, at dawn yesterday (Dec. 1), ten vehicles were involved in a chain collision on an icy road on an overpass in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, injuring three people.

[Cho Jeong-gwon/Korea Transportation Safety Authority: "On roads in mountainous areas, near tunnels, and on bridges, you can assume that there is 100% black ice. You should reduce your speed by 50% and maintain a safety distance of more than twice…."]

In the past five years, the number of fatalities per 100 freezing traffic accidents was 2.4, which is significantly higher than the 1.4 for general traffic accidents.

This is KBS News, Lee Won-hee.