Little Orange (South Korean Culture and Me): Kpop Group Ladies' Code and road accidents in South Korea

RiSe and EunB

Some of you may probably be aware of this incident already, when the tragic car accident happened on the 3rd of September 2014, where two members from Ladies' Code, namely EunB and RiSe, lost their lives, and the other members seriously injured. So, why bring up the past?

Well, it's solely because of my guilt over the fact that even though I have heard about the crash, I didn't really pay attention to it. The incident somehow got into my head again and I now feel so much grief over the loss of the lives of EunB and RiSe.

Ladies' Code - Kiss Kiss (released in August 2014)

EunB, died at the scene at the age of 21

RiSe died at the age of 23, 4 days after the accident due to a severe head injury.

Polaris Entertainment, the group's label made a statement after the accident:

‘After a schedule in Daegu on September 2, Ladies’ Code was headed back to Seoul. Around 1:30 AM in Suwon, an issue occured with the car′s back wheel coming off. With the rainy road and wheel coming off, the vehicle spun several times, hitting a guardrail.'

Ladies’ Code members Ashley and Zuny were released from hospital and attended the funeral of EunB on September 5 2014, with much grief. The remaining member was sadly unable to attend she was still hospitalized and needed an operation for a facial fracture.

Ashley and Zuny

However, there were no witnesses and no CCTV recordings present at the scene of the inicident and the blackbox could not be uncovered, resulting in a rather dim perspective of who was to blame for the tragedy.

It was also revealed that the van’s air bags did not work at the time of the accident. Another report then came out claiming that they hit the guard rail when it tried to avoid a collision with another vehicle.

Later on the year, reports have come in saying that Manager Park, who was driving, was travelling at a speed of more than 80 mph when the speed limit was reduced to 55 mph because of bad road conditions. He was arrested on the 12th of November 2014 and was trialled on January the 15th.

There is a seriously important life lesson to learn from here. Dangerous driving is indeed fatal. No matter how quickly you need to travel to a place in order to keep up with schedules or no matter how experienced you are as a driver, or are in the belief of the 'tattle tale' that people sitting in the back seats do not need to wear seatbelts (which many people in Asia believe and which is actually very alarming), you must follow the regulations of the road that have been put in place. Speed limits are not there for meer decoration!

To finish off, why not have a look at what EatYourKimchi have to say...