<Anchor> Last



night (15th), more than 40 cars collided one after another on a highway in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, killing one person and seriously injuring three others.

It seems that the thin ice sheet on the road on a dark night has led to a major accident as it is not well visible.



First, reporter Park Ye-rin reports.



<Reporter>



On a dark highway, vehicles suddenly stopped in front of the running vehicle, and I try to reduce the speed, but the car does not listen.



Dozens of vehicles have already been tangled up on the road, and there are rows of cars that have been distorted beyond recognition.



The firefighters who came to the rescue walked stealthily across the road as if walking on ice.



At around 9:10 last night, a woman in her 40s was killed and 3 others were seriously injured in a chain reaction of 44 vehicles near the Chukseokryeong Tunnel in the direction of Pocheon on the Guripocheon Expressway.



Three other vehicles crashed into guardrails while trying to avoid a collision.



The police believe that yesterday's snow and rain mixed with soot and dust to create thin black ice roads, or black ice.



[Police official: (In the eyes) The road surface must have melted.

In such a state, the temperature dropped and it became icy.]



Even though it was daytime, the road where the accident occurred is still frozen in places.



Residents say accidents often happen in the winter.



[Kim Bong-joon/Nearby residents: It's on the mountain side after going through the tunnel, so there's a lot of shade.

There is also ice (a lot.) I've seen 3 or 4 accidents here.]



The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced that it had sprayed snow remover 3 times in the section yesterday, but it has become virtually useless.

[Seung-Woo Ha/Chief of



Safety Management Office, Korea Transportation Safety Authority: If the sunlight does not completely evaporate during the day, as the sun goes down, it freezes and the water component changes to ice.]



It is a policy to collect the black boxes of vehicles and identify the exact cause of the accident.



(Video coverage: Seol Min-hwan · Lee Sang-hak Video editing: Oh No-young)



▶ "Experiment of passing black ice at 30 km/h... All were unaware"