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It is also a part to point out whether the relevant local government played its role.

On the day of the disaster, basic safety measures such as vehicle control were not implemented in the Itaewon area.

Since there was no event organizer, the ward office was not actively involved in safety management.



This content was covered by reporter Park Chan-beom.



<Reporter> This



is the area around Itaewon Station right after the crushing disaster, which was flooded with 119 reports.



A city bus is crossing the road to make a U-turn, and several vehicles are unable to pass behind it.



On the day of the massacre, it was confirmed that there was no separate vehicle access control from the crowded Itaewon Station to Noksapyeong Station here.



Mo Bae, a taxi driver with 20 years of experience, said that even if the vehicle had been controlled, there would not have been so many people in the alleyway where the disaster occurred.



[Mr. Bae / Taxi Driver: If there had been control, such a disaster would not have happened, probably.

And because there were so many cars, there was no time for citizens to walk around, so everyone walked into the alley and the disaster happened…

.]



It was different from other festivals held in Itaewon two weeks ago.



[Mr. Bae/Taxi Driver: I have a safety cap, and I controlled it from there.

From down there, I turned everything up to the entrance to the fire station, and from there I controlled it.

Before that, when it was a global village (festival).]



Yongsan-gu Office said that during the Halloween festival, the police had never asked the police to control the vehicle.



Since there is no event organizer for the Halloween festival, the ward office did not directly manage the festival safety.



For festivals with an organizer, the local government establishes a safety management plan according to the local festival site manual of the Ministry of Public Administration and Security, but the festival with about 130,000 people is in a safety blind spot.



An official from Yongsan-gu Office said that there is no department or person in charge of Halloween festival safety.



150 officials from the ward office who were put in during the Halloween festival were also personnel unrelated to safety, taking on other tasks such as cleaning.



[Kim Soo-bin / Itaewon resident: If the ward office had done it a little more in advance, if it had been done in one direction, it would be controlled or…

.]



There was also an argument that the number of casualties increased by passively responding to the problem of illegal parking.



[Kim Soo-bin / Itaewon resident: I need to evacuate quickly, but there is no way out, so I ended up being left too unattended in that place…

.]



The Yongsan-gu Office announced that it would suspend all events scheduled for this year, but the controversy over responsibility for this disaster seems likely to continue.



(Video editing: Park Chun-bae, CG: Lee Jong-jung, VJ: Lee Jun-young, video provided: Han Ji-yul)