By These two below videos should prove to be fascinating for USFK personnel who drive military vehicles in Korea today. The lessons learned in the video of children running across the street, ajeossi racing in between convoys, roads clogged with “one eyed water buffaloes”, etc. is incredibly still applicable even to this day when driving in Korea.
These videos should also serve as a reminder that military driver’s safety is not something that came about because of the 2002 armored vehicle accident but in fact something that has been emphasized for decades.
I especially like the line at the end of this 2nd video where the narrator says that military driver’s will be amazed, baffled, and amused by Korean driving habits and 23 years after the making of this video this is still the same way I feel when observing Korean drivers today.
12:48 pm on August 14th, 2008 1
That's the same film that I saw before taking my test in 2001.
1:43 pm on August 14th, 2008 2
Woodc**k was run over. H-he was run over. It all happened so quickly. He was in pretty bad shape.
6:07 pm on August 14th, 2008 3
Any training films for the early 1990s?
That's when Korea became #1 in the WORLD for the most dangerous highways. Whenever you drove off-base, you took your life in your hands. Truck drivers were all on amphetamines to stay awake — and speeding because they were docked for late deliveries. Needless to say, lots of them were killed but they took out a lot of other people with them. Suddenly everyone could afford a car and just about everyone were brand new drivers. They all drove too fast — just like teenagers — and none had much experience driving. Everyone had to pass the car in front. In Kunsan, it was not unusual to see one or two cars in the ditch every morning on the way to work downtown. Then we had halmoni and haraboji who still thought they owned the roads — and many were found as hit-and-run roadkills come first light. Kids were the worst for hit-and-runs. What a nightmare period.
I was driving in Korea in 1987 and the road conditions were pretty much like what was shown off-base in the training film — including those police barricades in the middle of the road. Actually it was pretty safe.
However, then the insanity hit in the 1990s, I can't explain how dangerous it got — atleast for me. The only sane drivers I knew were my brothers-in-law — and they drove like Speed Racer in Seoul. To me everyone else was out of control.
Would love to see how the Army explained the driving conditions off-base back then — and what sage advice they gave besides "Drive to Survive."
6:14 pm on August 14th, 2008 4
There was practically no such thing as widespread ownership of POV's in Korea until just before/around the time of the 1988 Olympics. So what few Koreans were on the road back then were actually sort of …professional drivers.
Does USFK still award you a driver's badge for 10,000 accident-free miles? We used to get them.
11:54 pm on August 14th, 2008 5
I just found it strange that Koreans turned their headlights off at stop lights at nite.
Oh well Korea is the land of the not quite right.
My goodbye place circa 1991 reads:
Goodbye to land of the not Guite right.
6:15 am on August 15th, 2008 6
@5 I just found it strange that Koreans turned their headlights off at stop lights at nite.
They were just being polite to not shine the lights in the on-coming cars face at the light. I picked up this habit in Japan long before I came to Korea. And incidentally, I and many other drivers (especially BEST taxi drivers) still do this today.
5:32 pm on August 15th, 2008 7
@5 I just found it strange that Koreans turned their headlights off at stop lights at nite.
This also comes from when their old cars had a funky electrical system and they ran lights straight from the battery. They turned them off to save power I guess. I could be wrong or not quite right.
11:00 pm on August 15th, 2008 8
@6 and 7, Thanks for the info.
Riding in a Korean taxi is bad enough, I would not even try and drive anywhere in Korea. They make the traffic in Vegas look like nothing.