November 29, 2024

• 

People crowd the streets of Itaewon on Saturday, moments before the tragic crowd crush accident occured. (Yonhap)

South Korea's science ministry is considering to develop a system that could warn authorities of potential crowd crush accidents by using digital data and technology to predict risk elements and the route of crowd movements.

The new system was proposed at an emergency safety inspection meeting held by the Ministry of Science and ICT on Monday following the death of 154 people in a crowd crush that occurred Saturday evening during Halloween celebrations in Itaewon, central Seoul.

“We have decided to consider implementing a system which can predict and warn of crowding accidents, such as this most recent one, by using digital data,” said a ministry official.

The ministry also decided during the meeting to examine the disaster broadcasting abilities of cable broadcasters and pay-per-view businesses, while inspecting the safety of facilities run by its affiliated organizations, such as Korea Post. Noncritical ministry events will also be reconsidered.

By Lee Seung-ku (seungku99@heraldcorp.com)