An accident involving a USFK bus has tragically killed two Korean nationals:

Two South Korean sisters died Sunday and six of their family members were critically injured after a bus carrying 15 U.S. servicemembers, most from Osan, and four family members crashed into their van on a highway north of Kunsan Air Base, according to U.S. and South Korean officials.

The bus was traveling to Osan Air Base from Kunsan when it hit the van, which was parked on the side of Highway 15 near the Hongsung rest stop, about an hour’s drive north of Kunsan, South Korean police said during a phone interview Monday.

The bus driver, Shin Dong-se, a 40-year-old South Korean employee at Kunsan Air Base, told police his bus struck the van after swerving to avoid another car in front of him that braked suddenly, a Hongsung police spokesman said.

The American passengers were mostly U.S. airmen from Osan and their relatives, said Kunsan spokeswoman Capt. Tiffany Payette. One passenger suffered minor injuries and was treated at Osan, Payette said. No Kunsan airmen were on the bus.  [Stars & Stripes]

Even though the bus was driven by a Korean national, USFK has already apologized for the accident to the family and offered a compensation payment.  It is unlikely this will turn into an anti-USFK issue but just imagine how different the reaction would have been if an American was driving the bus. 

Over at Nomad’s site a good reference to this fact is made by how the Joong Ang Ilbo article decided to link this accident to the 2002 Armored Vehicle Accident even though each incident has absolutely nothing to do with each other. 

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