No Ambulance Was Present at the Scene of the Gyeongju Festival Crowd Crush
A woman in her 70s, identified only as A, was caught in a crowd of departing visitors at the 'Yangnam Columnar Joint Hanmaeum Festival' in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, in September last year, but it has been confirmed as of the 6th that no ambulance was present at the scene, delaying her transport to the hospital by about an hour. At the time of the accident, nearby firefighters were already out on another call, so an ambulance was dispatched from a location more than 20 minutes away, and vehicles and crowds gathered around the venue prevented immediate access to the patient.
Following the October 29 Itaewon disaster in 2022, the National Assembly revised the Framework Act on Disaster and Safety Management. The gist of the revision was to require heads of local governments to establish safety management plans and countermeasures for local festivals expected to draw 1,000 or more visitors at peak times.
Gyeongju City's official documents sent to Gyeongju Police Station, Gyeongju Fire Station, and others before the event listed the expected attendance as around 900 people and stated that the rental of a private ambulance had been completed, but no ambulance was actually deployed at the venue. A city official said regarding why the ambulance was not deployed: "This was an event that did not draw more than 1,000 visitors annually, and while an ambulance was deployed through 2024, last year the reservation was reportedly canceled during communication between the Gyeongju Cultural Foundation and the Yangnam Township Development Council." The Yangnam Township Development Council, which managed the event, also acknowledged that no ambulance had been arranged in advance.
However, the event preparation records tell a different story. According to the local subsidy grant application submitted by the council to Gyeongju City in August last year, just before the event, the budget for some expenditure items—such as chairs at the venue and refreshments for visitors—was set based on 2,000 people. In response, Gyeongju City stated that "service estimates are sometimes calculated larger than the actual event scale, and about 1,200 items were actually ordered," but even this figure differs from the expected attendance of around 900 reported to relevant agencies.
Lee Young-ju, a professor of fire and disaster prevention studies at Kyungil University, pointed out, "The more organizers inflate the expected number of attendees, the greater their safety management burden becomes, so there is a possibility they may respond passively, such as by underestimating the actual number of participants." She added, "Even if an accident occurs, there is no adequate means to verify whether the basis for the attendance estimate was appropriate."
During the investigation process, in October last year, the month after the accident, the victim's family filed a complaint with Gyeongju Police Station against the council on charges of violating the Disaster and Safety Act and the Special Act on Multi-Use Facilities, but in February this year the police decided not to indict, citing insufficient evidence. They acknowledged some negligence on the organizers' part but concluded that a direct causal link between that negligence and the deterioration of A's condition had not been proven. After the family member, surnamed Kim, applied for a review of the decision, the North Gyeongsang Provincial Police ordered a reinvestigation on the 16th of last month—about a year after the accident occurred.
Kim said, "We also filed criminal complaints against Gyeongju City and the Gyeongju Cultural Foundation on the 26th of last month," adding, "These are efforts to uncover the truth, but it breaks my heart to know that doing this will not restore my mother's condition."
