A life baton is a device that helps citizens escape by holding on to the pole before the underpass is completely submerged during heavy rain.
After the accident at Gungpyeong 2 Underpass in North Chungcheong Province last summer, Gyeongnam Province proposed a budget for the installation of life bars to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and secured 650 million won in disaster safety grant tax.
With this budget, this year, for the first time in the country, life bars were installed on six underpasses that are close to rivers, are over 40 meters long, and have a concave center.
Lifebars were installed at Seokjeon, Yongwon, and Myeonggok underpasses (Changwon-si), Namgang underpass (Jinju-si), Bulam underpass (Gimhae-si), and Geomam underpass (Haman-gun).
In the second half of this year, Gyeongnam Province will additionally install life rods in five underpasses, including Palyong 1, Palyong 2, Yeojwa Underpass (Changwon-si), Songji Underpass (Milyang-si), and Dabang Underpass (Yangsan-si).
Stainless steel life rods are installed horizontally to both ends along both walls of the underpass.
Starting from 1m below the floor, four lifebars are installed at 1m intervals.
The life stick at the bottom 1m is used to hold on and try to escape when the underpass begins to fill with water.
If the water continues to rise, you can climb up on the lower life bar and escape by holding on to the upper life bar until the underpass is submerged.
Gyeongnam Province installed an emergency ladder in the section of the retaining wall where the underpass ends so that citizens who escaped holding life sticks could climb up.
Due to heavy rain on July 15 last year, the embankment of the Miho River in Osong-eup, Cheongju-si, Chungcheongbuk-do burst, and tens of thousands of tons of water poured into the nearby Gungpyeong 2 Underground Road.
In just a few minutes, the underpass was completely submerged in water, and 14 citizens who were passing through the underpass in their cars were unable to escape and died.
https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20240906044100052
Those who did well did not have any life-saving devices so far, so where do they even have these?
People who say it’s a waste of tax money say that it will be slippery if it gets wet or submerged in the rain, but is that correct? Is it possible for the elderly and children to use it? Shouldn’t the person who designed it be locked up and filled with water to test whether it can escape? There is a lot of talk even in the local area.