1 year after the Itaewon stampede tragedy (South Korea): The pain has yet to subside

The stampede, the deadliest incident ever in South Korea, occurred in Itaewon, a vibrant nightlife district in Seoul, on October 29, 2022. It was a Saturday night when about 100,000 people flocked to the area to celebrate Halloween.

The victims were crushed and trampled in a narrow sloping path just 3.2 meters wide, as a crowd surged in and filled the path, jostling one another. The accident was the worst disaster the country has seen since the 2014 sinking of the Sewol passenger ferry off the southern coast that killed 304 people.

For survivors and bereaved families, the tragedy from a year ago has yet to subside.

A mass altar with portraits of the victims still stands in a corner of the public lawn in front of Seoul City Hall, while families of the unfortunate victims continue to call for the passage of a special law to address the fatal accident.

“It has been a year since that horrific memory, but no truth has been revealed properly, while no one has been punished,” said Lee Jung-min, a representative of the families. Lee Jung-min said the tragedy is quickly fading from people’s memories. Lee lost his 28-year-old daughter in the heartbreaking incident in Itaewon.

"The things that people enjoy in normal daily life like happiness and warmth are no longer there for us," he said.

Lee and about 100 other bereaved families want to pass a special law requiring an independent investigation by lawyers into what happened and who was responsible for the deaths by the end of this year, Yonhap reported.

Trials are currently underway for several police, fire and ward office officials indicted on charges related to negligent first aid and disaster response, including Yongsan Ward Chief Park Hee-young and former Police Chief Lee Im-jae.

Investigations have found that most of the 87 emergency calls for help on the night of the tragedy were ignored and no preventative measures were taken during the crowded Halloween festivities at the weekend, suggesting the tragedy was "human-caused".

"We hope this law will be passed this year to find out the truth behind the tragedy and help the victims, especially those who did not receive any significant support, get adequate compensation," said Cho In-young, a lawyer supporting the bereaved families.

The tragedy left South Korea questioning what happened and what should have been done, and the government has since introduced a number of safety measures to prevent a similar fatal accident from happening again.

Under the measures, new regional governments are required to come up with safety management plans for festivals or other mass public events to be held in their districts.

Leveraging information and communication technology, a crowd management monitoring system will also be set up to monitor crowd density through surveillance cameras and notify police and firefighters in case of any danger.

By 2027, all regional governments across South Korea will be required to operate 24/7 disaster response rooms and replace surveillance cameras with AI-powered cameras capable of crowd monitoring.

Hotels, amusement parks and discount stores have decided to abandon Halloween marketing this week, with many Halloween-goers planning to move their activities to another popular nightlife district near Hongik University instead of Itaewon.

Next Sunday (October 29), the bereaved families plan to hold a mass memorial event in central Seoul, including a march from Itaewon to Seoul City Hall and a mass protest that evening.

Song Hae-jin, mother of the 159th victim, said she wanted more people to attend Sunday's memorial service to "comfort each other and think about what we can do to not be hurt again."

Her son, a 16-year-old student, took his own life in grief over the deaths of two friends he had gone to Itaewon with on the night of the tragedy.

“I want more people to visit the accident site and remember those who died there,” Lee said.