▲ Black Ice Accident Site with a Turck on Fire

A few days ago, there was a terrible accident on the expressway, which connects Sangju and Yeongcheon. Many people say that the cause of this accident is called Black ice. Black ice is rain transformed into a very thin ice sheet on a road which is almost impossible to be seen. Therefore, the drivers did not have a clue that the road was slippery. Even if a driver tried to brake his or her car, then the car would just slip through the road. The car hit another car, and this was repeated that led to a big collision. To make matters worse, the road is a highway where the cars are running very fast. Until now the police are trying to find the cause of the accident.

▲ Police seeking for the reason of the collision

The status of the victims was quite bad. Seven people died, 30 people were hurt, and 40 cars crashed. The worse thing is dead bodies were damaged a lot, so the authorities could not identify themselves easily. According to an interview, all the drivers said the same thing. They looked at the same kind of car in the accident and tried braking their car to stop. However, their car just slipped on the road like a skate.

Even during this terrible accident, there was a good story. A truck driver might have died if his wife did not call 119 with her fast judgment. The wife of a 56-year-old truck driver, who sustained severe leg injuries at the scene of a series of rear-end collisions, told the JoongAng Ilbo in a telephone interview that her husband was talking to her on the phone when the accident happened. But, suddenly, her husband screamed and said that a car was on fire, so she called 119. They located the hospital and took a taxi from Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, to Gumi, North Gyeongsang Province.

The car collision is not because of people's carelessness. However, because of the very thin ice sheet, too many cars crashed, and many people were injured. Also, there are seven unlucky people who are dead now. Police are trying to find the cause, but many people believe that black ice is the real cause of this accident. There are three ways to prevent this kind of accident. First, we have to drive slowly and take a little distance from a car in front of us. Next, we should not try to stop our car forcefully. It rather will fasten our car and make a collision worse.

▲ Winter Tire

Finally, we need to put on winter tires. Those tires prevent from slipping, and even if we do, they will reduce the speed effectively. We all should be careful and prepare well so that this terrible collision will not occur again.

Dec. 21, 2019

by Kim Si-Hyoung