Seongsu Bridge disaster

Construction for the Seongsu Bridge began on April 9, 1977, and was completed on October 15, 1979, by the at a cost of 11.58 billion won (equivalent to ₩ billion in ). At the time, foreign firms were excluded from construction contracts, stretching thin domestic construction companies who faced increasing demand as a result of military dictator Park Chung Hee's development plan south of the Han River. The cantilever bridge had four lanes of traffic, a width of , and spanned . The speed limit on the bridge was . The bridge was praised for its focus on its aesthetics in addition to functional considerations, setting it apart from other bridges built at the time. The bridge became the 11th bridge constructed over the Han River and alleviated traffic on the nearby Yeongdong and Hannam bridges. Two years earlier, the Second Haengju Bridge collapsed during construction with no casualties. Later that year, the () in Namhae, South Gyeongsang Province, collapsed under similar circumstances as the Seongsu Bridge. At the time, bids for construction projects frequently went to companies that promised the fastest construction, incentivizing cheap and rushed construction at the expense of safety. Dong Ah Construction's bid for the Seongsu Bridge's construction contract was half the price of its expected cost at the time. The rushed construction of the bridge was attributed as a negative consequence of South Korea's ppalli ppalli () culture. The Seongsu Bridge linked the Seongdong District north of the river to the southern Gangnam District and was one of the busiest bridges in Seoul. Following the development of the Gangnam region, the number of vehicles using the bridge increased exponentially to 160,000 vehicles per day. The bridge connected to the Seoul Olympic Highway to the south. During the 15 years from its construction to its collapse, the Seongsu Bridge had never been subject to a detailed inspection because it was less than 20 years old and inspections had focused solely on aging structures. == Collapse ==

On October 20, 1994, at 9:30 p.m. KST the evening before the collapse, workers for the Seoul Metropolitan Government laid a small steel plate onto a seam on the bridge, away from the site of the eventual collapse, to cover up a large gap that had formed at the joint. At 7:38 a.m., during the beginning of the morning rush hour, a span on the north side of the Seongsu Bridge suddenly gave way into the Han River below. Survivors of the collapse compared the sound of the collapse to thunder. The police van carried 11 police and auxiliary police officers who were selected as model officers for celebrations that day. Two of the victims on the bus survived the fall, but died waiting for first responders. The victims were treated at six hospitals, including the , while the 32 dead were enshrined at 15 hospitals throughout Seoul. Among the victims was Adele Aida, a 40-year-old undocumented immigrant from the Philippines who was traveling to a meeting of Filipinos in Korea. Initial reports incorrectly reported over 40 deaths after police reports mistakenly combined the list of the dead and the injured. At 9:40 a.m., 20 divers from the of the Korean Navy arrived at the scene to recover bodies from the river. Vehicles carrying loads greater than their maximum capacity were regularly passing through the bridge. A KBS News investigation the following day found that the Seongsu Bridge, along with the Dongho Bridge and the Hangang Bridge, suffered from rushed construction. In their report, KBS News noted that severely rusted steel on the bridges had been painted over, bolts were missing from the bridges, and segments of the bridges were only welded on the outside. Following the collapse, it was also revealed that the Seoul Metropolitan Government had planned to expand the bridge from four to five lanes through a reversible lane. == Investigations ==

On July 13, 1995, the Seoul District Prosecutor's Office published the 471-page White Paper on the Activities of the Seongsu Bridge Collapse Incident Investigation Team, analyzing the causes of the bridge collapse. The white paper concludes that the direct cause of the collapse was the poor welding of the vertical members of the bridge, which connected the suspension trusses to the anchor trusses. It notes that had the vertical members been welded correctly, increases in load would not have caused the fatigue stress to exceed reasonable limits and that fatigue failure would not have occurred. Radiographic testing carried out following the collapse found that 110 out of the 111 connections in the bridge were filled with defects and that welds often only penetrated 2 to 8mm when the beams were 18mm thick. The white paper further notes that had the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Dongbu Corporation properly inspected the bridge and carried out basic repairs, the collapse would have been unlikely to occur. The report concluded that as a result of the poor construction and maintenance of the bridge, in the worst-case scenario, the collapse of the bridge could have occurred within three years of construction. The white paper found no flaws in the design of the bridge itself. In addition, the frequent use of inexperienced subcontractors, the lack of a system to monitor discrepancies in design and construction, the management of construction by non-technical officials, and rampant corruption were all listed as exacerbating factors in the collapse. At the time, due to the lack of domestic technical skills in steel plate welding, Dong Ah Construction hired a Zainichi Korean to manage the Bupyeo steel factory (). However, when his insistence on inspecting the welds led to delays, he was fired. == Legal proceedings ==

Immediately following the collapse, prosecutors launched a criminal investigation into Dong Ah Construction. Four days later, prosecutors found damage reports submitted in February and April to the Seoul Metropolitan Government by the Dongbu Corporation, which was responsible for bridge maintenance and repair. These reports stated the steel girders supporting the Seongsu Bridge were in urgent need of repair and included photographs of the damage on the bridge. On October 26, prosecutors arrested the head of the city government's construction office and six other Seoul City officials for falsely reporting that the bridge was safe without performing the required daily checks. In the end, the Seoul District Prosecutor's Office's investigation would lead to 17 arrests in connection to the collapse: four Seoul Metropolitan Government officials, seven Dongbu Corporation officials, and six Dong Ah Construction officials. The 17 defendants were tried collectively at the 7th Seoul Criminal District Court under Judge Kim Dong-hwan (), and proceedings began on December 15, 1994. Defendants from Dong Ah Construction were charged with criminal negligence resulting in death, injury, the obstruction of traffic, and an automobile accident. Defendants from the Seoul Metropolitan Government and the Dongbu Corporation were additionally charged with forgery of public documents, use of forged public documents, forgery of private documents, and use of forged private documents. Defendants from Dong Ah Construction argued that the five-year statute of limitations for negligent manslaughter had passed because the bridge had been built 15 years ago. However, the judge ruled that the statute of limitations for criminal negligence began on the date of the crash and not the date of construction, a decision appellate courts would later uphold. On April 20, 1995, the district court convicted 16 defendants while acquitting construction site manager Shin Dong-hyun (), ruling that Shin was not in a position to be aware of any defects in the welding of the bridge. Seoul District Prosecutors appealed the decisions, and the case was taken to the Seoul Central District Court. Yeo Yong-won (), the former director of the Dongbu Construction office in Seoul, was sentenced to one year six months imprisonment, having previously been serving a suspended sentence of four years' probation from two years imprisonment. The former head of the city's road maintenance office Kim Jae-seok () was sentenced to one year and six months imprisonment and three years probation. Construction supervisors for the city of Seoul Kim Seok-gi () and Lee Woo-yeon () were sentenced to one year and six months imprisonment and three years' probation while Lee was sentenced to one year imprisonment and two years' probation. Former Vice President Kim Myeong-nyeon () and public affairs manager Jang Rae-ik () of Dong Ah Construction were both sentenced to two years imprisonment and five years' probation. and accepted the lower court's ruling that the Dong Ah Construction Industrial Company was guilty of criminal negligence in its poor construction of the bridge. == Aftermath ==

An estimated 5,000 vehicles had to be redirected onto arterial roads, causing traffic congestion lasting until 11 p.m. that night. Following the disaster, Prime Minister Lee Yung-dug offered his resignation, but President Kim Young-sam declined, stating that changing safety measures was more important than changing people. In contrast, the resignation offer of Lee Won-jong, the Mayor of Seoul, was accepted at 7 p.m. that day. He would be replaced by Governor of North Gyeongsang Province on October 31 before being replaced again by Choi Byung-ryeol 11 days later, when it was revealed that Woo had been when internal reports had questioned the safety of the bridge. Kim held a meeting with his cabinet on October 23 calling for the elimination of deficient companies from the construction industry and the revision of laws to increase the depth and breadth of inspections. The next day, Kim appeared on national television in his second official apology of his term. In his address, he stated that the rapid development of South Korea since the 1960s had brought both positive and negative outcomes, and that his government would promise to minimize all risks to Koreans. He then apologized, stating that the disaster was the result of his own lack of virtue and that he recognized the issues in the management system brought to light by the collapse. Nevertheless, the Sampoong Department Store collapsed nine months later, becoming the deadliest peacetime disaster in South Korean history. The recurrence of major disasters during the Kim Young-sam administration gave his government the popular nickname "". In response to the bridge disaster, opposition parties in the National Assembly called on members of Kim's cabinet to resign, raising motions of no confidence which were voted down. On November 30 of that year, newspaper clippings documenting the disaster were included in the which marked the 600th anniversary of the capital city of Seoul. The Temporary Workers Friendly Association of Korea () and the Lotte Welfare Foundation also provided compensation to the family of Adele Aida through the Philippine embassy. Many of those who survived the disaster have been reported to have had permanent psychological trauma from the incident. In July of that year, the Disaster Control Act would be passed, a response to the deadly collapses of the Seongsu Bridge and the Sampoong Department Store. Although the city government initially planned to repair and reopen the Seongsu Bridge to traffic within three months, this plan was reversed following public outcry. The new bridge was opened to the public on July 3, 1997, by Mayor Cho Soon, and a memorial was held on the bridge. Memorial The Memorial Stone for the Victims of the Seongsu Bridge Disaster () was erected on October 21, 1997, by the families of the Seongsu Bridge disaster victims. The memorial commemorates the victims of the disaster and aims to raise awareness on the safe management of public infrastructure. == In popular culture ==

• DJ DOC's second studio album (1995) contains the tracks "Breaking News" and "Seongsu Bridge" which were made in response to the disaster. • The Seongsu Bridge disaster was the subject of Jeong Yoon-cheol's 1997 debut short film Memorial Photographing (). • The manhwa series (1998–2003) by Yoon Tae-ho was based on the collapse of the Seongsu Bridge. • The 2018 film House of Hummingbird revolves around the Seongsu Bridge disaster as a major plot point. == Gallery ==

Notes References Sources Books • • • • Journals and magazines • Newspaper articles • • • White paper released by the Seoul District Prosecutor's Office • Websites and television • • • • • • • • • •