On Saturday morning a Mugonghwa bound to Seoul got too close to a KTX train, which was on his way from Seoul to Busan. The KTX was hit at the last passenger wagon and derailed. The accident happened at the entrance to Daegu train station and this means that both trains were on very low speed. There was a second KTX train standing on third rail track right at the accident place, who got also damaged, because the Mugonghwa pushed the KTX towards this standing vehicle. You can see pictures by Yonhap News Agency here and see a graphic about the KTX accident place here.
All train operations were put on hold at first and later that day most trains only operated between Seoul and Gimcheon/Gumi and between Busan and East-Daegu (Dong-Daegu, 동대구). It came to a large chaos at train stations and at the transfer places to buses for the route between Gumi and East-Daegu. KORAIL organized taxis and buses to bridge the part. It was criticized that KORAIl, esp. the staff at Daegu Station, didn’t inform passengers about the circumstances and it took them too long to find alternatives.
There were no injuries among the passengers of both trains. One man called the ambulance and went to the hospital but he had nothing serious. Passengers used the emergency exits through the window to get out of the train. Investigations have to be made but there are assumptions that the Mugonghwa oversaw signals and the train conductor didn’t wait until the KTX entered the station completely. Removing the train wagons after the KTX accident will take until early morning of Sunday, according to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport. Train operations on Sunday should work according to normal schedule.
Resources and Related Links: Yonhap News 1 | Yonhap News 2
I had wondered what happened. I woke up to my husband telling me we were switching transportation methods for the day. We had tickets to Busan yesterday and we ended up flying down instead so we didn’t have to deal with the mess. All is fine today though. On a train back to Seoul now.