Heavy rainfall across South Korea caused a series of traffic accidents and landslides on Saturday, including a collision that seriously injured four people [1].
These incidents highlight the immediate dangers of extreme weather on national infrastructure, where slippery roads and unstable slopes can turn routine commutes into life-threatening situations.
In Gangneung, Gangwon-do province, a 25-seat bus and a passenger car collided around 8 a.m. [1, 3]. The crash occurred on a road in Sacheon-myeon, leaving four people seriously injured [1]. There were 12 passengers on the bus at the time of the accident [1].
Reporters at the scene described the severity of the impact, noting that the bus was overturned in the middle of the road while the passenger car was heavily crushed, said Oh Seung-hoon [2].
Other regions faced similar disruptions earlier in the morning. Around 4 a.m., a freight truck slipped and overturned on the south side of the Dongjak Bridge on Seoul's Olympic-daero [1]. While the truck overturn caused significant disruption to the expressway, no injuries were reported from that specific incident [1].
In Jeongseon-county, the weather triggered a soil flow on a mountain slope [1]. The landslide caused debris to spill onto the roadway, which temporarily blocked vehicle traffic until crews could clear the path [1].
Officials attributed the string of accidents to intense early-morning rainfall, which created hazardous driving conditions and triggered runoff on steep slopes [1]. The rain caused widespread damage across various parts of the country, said an anchor for YTN News [1].
“A 25-seat bus and a passenger car collided around 8 a.m. in Gangneung.”
The simultaneous occurrence of a high-occupancy vehicle crash, a heavy-truck overturn in the capital, and a landslide indicates a systemic failure of road safety during peak precipitation. The timing of these events—concentrated in the early morning hours—suggests that sudden weather shifts during commute times significantly increase the risk of mass-casualty accidents.
