After seeing the theme park at Palgongsan on Saturday and being reminded of just how puzzled I was by the advertising, I decided to do some research on it. After all, what self-respecting child would want to visit a safety theme park over a regular theme park? What could it possibly have to offer? Well, after some investigation, I discovered it has a lot to offer, perhaps less so for the thrill seeker and considerably more for the more boring/anal retentive/paranoid. Still, as I delved deeper I discovered that there was indeed logic behind erecting such a white elepant…
The DSTP website’s opening gambit is simple and to the point - "accidents take place unexpectedly in our daily life. When we meet these situations, we may not know what to do. Daegu Safety Theme Park was opened to the public last December, and it was designed to inform you of how to react in emergency situations”. Quite how they came up with the name ‘theme park’ is a mystery, but I guess it’s a logical attempt at selling an otherwise tedious concept.
So what can we see and do at this Theme Park? You’d be surprised – visitors can experience the unbridled exhilaration of a range of attractions including:
- an unparalleled 'historic transition disaster study space'
- Three glorious floors dedicated to subway safety
- a 250 degree three-sided theatre dedicated to educating you on the dangers of mountain and forest fires
- play area - no boring monkey bars and slides here kids. Ambulances and fire engines (sounds like my kind of playground!)
- Find risky factors in our daily lives! 'A space to learn reaction against various risks at home by rotary pannel'.
But in all seriousness, I can understand the sentiments of having such a place to educate people. A large part of the focus at the park is on mountain safety as Koreans love hiking but can be somewhat impractical at times. In addition to the park, there is also an outdoor survival education centre nearby which is a pretty smart idea. The numbers of hikers in this country are huge – it is a national pastime and I can fully appreciate the dangers inherent in such a sport, particularly in a country such as Korea where the weather can be very extreme. A large portion of the park is also dedicated to subway safety. This also sounds tediously boring, but much like the wilderness survival has a very real aspect.
On February 18, 2003 a fire at Jungnano station (central Daegu) took the lives of 192 people and injured 148. A former taxi driver set fire to a subway carriage at Jungnano station using four litres of gasoline and a match. He had recently suffered a stroke and had been left partially paralyzed and extremely disgruntled at his medical treatment. His wish was to commit suicide but he told police that he did not want to die alone and wanted to do so in a crowded place.
Other passengers on the train quickly became aware that the man was attempting to start a fire but were tragically unable to prevent him from doing so. The trains at that point were very new, with the interiors made of highly flammable components such as fiberglass, carbonated vinyl and polyethylene. As a result, within two minutes of the fire starting, flames had engulfed all six carriages of the train.
Tragically, so many people died because of a litany of errors by subway station staff. Upon seeing the smoke, officials radioed the driver of a train entering the station from the opposite direction to tell him to “proceed with caution” (rather than not enter at all). He pulled up alongside the burning train and opened the doors, filling the train with toxic smoke. Almost immediately after, he closed the doors and a fire detector inside the station was triggered, shutting off power to both trains and trapping them in the station.
The following is from a horrifying article on the disaster: “Transcripts show Choi Sang-yeol made three announcements advising passengers in train 1080 to remain seated while he attempted to reach superiors. Finally, he was advised "Quickly, run somewhere else. Go up... kill the engine and go." Choi then opened the doors and fled, but in doing so he removed the master key, shutting down the onboard batteries which powered the train doors — effectively sealing passengers inside. Later investigation showed 79 passengers remained trapped inside train 1080 and died there.”
At that point, subway trains were not equipped with any fire extinguishers, stations had no sprinklers and lacked emergency lighting. An attempt was made to cover up liability in this disaster, but both the arsonist and the driver survived and were later found and sentenced to life and five years in prison respectively for their parts in the tragedy. The incident provoked debate as to whether Korea’s rapid industrialization had resulted in cutting of corners and consequently compromised passenger safety – attempts were made to improve fire standards across the country but action has been very slow due to budget constraints.
The reality of a tragedy like this is almost too much to comprehend. I travel on the subway regularly to this station and had no idea of the horrors it was home to in the past. In a way I can understand the Korean government’s sentiment in building a safety theme park, but building is one thing – having people attend and understand is another. Even more importantly, what’s the sense in having this sort of thing when those who are building and running our state facilities have no idea what to do in an emergency? A sobering thought indeed, and we can only hope that Korea has learned from this tragedy.
Hardly a child magnet...
The Daegu Safety Theme Park as viewed from the outside.
The subway disaster is horrifying and intriguing in equal parts. For sure there was a huge issue of neglect (with regards to appropriate international transport safety standards) but there's something else going on here. Do you not think that perhaps Korean cultural norms might have played a part in this disaster?
ReplyDeleteI've read case-studies in the past where similar disasters have occurred and we see some very interesting human behaviours therein. At times we see people do absolutely nothing when faced with their impending death. At other times we see too little action too late.
Here we see a train driver take complete leave of his senses four times:
-Driving a train into a burning tunnel
- Stopping his train alongside and opening the doors
- Waiting where he was for further instruction
- Shutting the train down when abandoning his engine.
Furthermore we have people in the carriages who have acted similarly... why did they not flee when the doors were opened?
It would seem from what little I know (and your own writings) that Korea is a very socially regimented society, fairly authoritarian in some respects. Social pressures and appearances seem much more than in most Western societies.
I just find it fascinating how in such situations people can default to behavioural norms that fly in the face of our second strongest natural instinct; self preservation (the strongest being the preservation of our own children).
Of course I could be misjudging this completely and this may be down to the pure stupidity of several people.... but it's food for thought anyway.