Fixie bike chaos

[Anchor]

Bicycles without brakes, known as 'fixie bikes,' are becoming very popular among teenagers these days.

However, due to the nature of these bicycles, it is difficult to stop, leading to a series of accidents.

Reporter Kim Yea-eun has the story.

[Report]

Late at night, a taxi waiting at a crosswalk starts moving as the light turns green.

At that moment, a bicycle suddenly darts into the crosswalk.

[Altered Voice: "Ahhh! Oh no!"]

The middle school student riding the bicycle falls to the ground and is injured after colliding with the taxi.

The bicycle the student was riding is a fixie bike, which has no braking system.

Although the risk of accidents is high, its sleek design and ability to perform tricks make it popular among teenagers.

In particular, it has become a trend to remove the braking system from the front wheel to gain more speed.

[High school student/Modified Voice: "(Why did you start riding a fixie bike?) I thought it looked cool... When I first bought it, it only had the front brake."]

Fixie bikes are characterized by having no significant braking system and a fixed gear on the rear wheel.

This makes it difficult to stop immediately and increases the risk of skidding, resulting in stopping distances that can be more than 13 times longer than regular bicycles.

[Won Seung-ryong/Bicycle shop employee: "(Originally) these are bicycles used in competitions. You need to stop immediately, but the fixie bike has a longer stopping distance, which leads to accidents..."]

Last month, after a middle school student riding a fixie bike collided with an air conditioning outdoor unit and died, the police began to crack down, but it is not possible to forcibly prevent riding.

A bill to prohibit the use of bicycles without braking systems on the road was recently proposed in the National Assembly, but it is expected to take considerable time before it is implemented.

This is KBS News, Kim Yea-eun.