March 14th, 2013 at 6:32 pm » Comments (11)

Earlier this week I posted the 2011 statistics for ROK criminal prosecutions of US military servicemembers serving in South Korea.  After compiling the statistics it was pretty clear that a major reason the USFK crime rate has increased in recent years is because of the change in the USFK driving policy back in 2008.  This change allowed more servicemember drivers on the Korean roads which statistically means more opportunities for accidents and other infractions to occur that will be added to the crime rate.  Here is a consolidated list of
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February 17th, 2013 at 6:33 pm » Comments (61)

There has been an ongoing discussion in the Open Thread in regards to Korean drivers being the worst in the world.  Haven driven in many countries I can honestly say this is not true.  Koreans may be poor at following traffic laws by American standards, but that doesn’t mean they are poor drivers.  According to the most up to date OECD statistics South Korea ranks second in traffic deaths per billion vehicle kilometers out of the 29 countries that are members of the OECD.  However, the same statistics show that
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December 2nd, 2011 at 4:27 pm » Comments (34)

Via 10 Mag comes this video of tow trucks in South Korea racing to be the first to respond to an accident: This is a common problem on Korea’s roads where miscellaneous businesses put emergency flashing lights on their vehicles and then expect everyone to get out of their way, while at the same time the ambulances are stuck in traffic. Watching this video was almost like watching someone play a video game considering how crazy this driving was.

April 26th, 2010 at 7:22 am » Comments (2)

This was an issue I see happen a few times with soldier’s licenses expiring while in Korea.  However, what I found more common than this was new soldiers PCSing to Korea from urban areas who had no licenses at all.  Let me tell you it is interesting to see Master Drivers trying to train a kid from Brooklyn how to drive his first vehicle, a large HMMWV on Korean roads: John Sevigny wasted five precious vacation days standing in line at a Department of Motor Vehicles office while in the
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November 8th, 2009 at 5:37 pm » Comments (13)

The ironic thing about this story is that she will probably be a safer driver than many of the people already driving in Korea: A woman in South Korea who tried to pass the written exam for a driver’s license with near-daily attempts since April 2005 has finally succeeded on her 950th time. The aspiring driver spent more than 5 million won ($4,200) in application fees, but until now had failed to score the minimum 60 out of a possible 100 points needed to get behind the wheel for a
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February 5th, 2009 at 7:32 am » Comments (8)

I agree with Jim that this bit of news doesn’t surprise me in the least: One could say she has the determination … but lacks the drive. A 68-year-old South Korean woman this week signed up to take her driving test once again — after failing to earn a license the first 771 times. The woman, identified only as Cha, first took the written portion of the exam in April 2005, said Choi Young-cheol of the Driver’s License Agency in the southwestern city of Jeonju. At the time, she made
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