Yoon Sung-mi, Gyeongnam Provincial Assembly Member, "Priority Signal System Expansion Needed to Secure Golden Time"

Yoon Sung-mi, Gyeongnam Provincial Assembly Member.

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Ju Cheol-in] Yoon Seong-mi, a member of the Gyeongnam Provincial Council (People Power Party, proportional representation), asserted on the 12th that "the priority signal system of Gyeongnam's transportation network should be expanded to secure the golden time."

In a 5-minute free speech at the 1st plenary session of the 389th extraordinary meeting held that day, Councilor Yoon urged Gyeongnam Province to play an active role in swiftly expanding the emergency vehicle priority signal system to more areas than the four sections planned for installation in 2022 (Gimhae East, Miryang, Changnyeong, Hapcheon).

Councilor Yoon pointed out, "The golden time for heart disease is fundamentally about rapid transport and arrival at the emergency room, but Gyeongnam ranked first nationwide in heart disease mortality from 2016 to 2018, sixth nationwide in pre-emergency room death rate of Gyeongnam 119 ambulances, and first nationwide in the number of emergency room patients, so urgent alternatives are needed."

He continued, "Firefighters are in situations where patients' lives are at stake and have been risking their lives to reduce the time to reach hospitals even by a single second. From 2014 to the first half of 2019, there were a total of 804 traffic accidents involving fire and ambulance vehicles nationwide, of which Gyeongnam accounted for 88 cases, ranking third highest in the country," emphasizing the issue.

He further explained, "The causes of accidents are primarily failure to comply with safe driving obligations (329 cases), followed by signal violations (239 cases), lane changes (83 cases), and center line invasions (55 cases), threatening the safety of firefighters, so safety measures are urgently needed."

Councilor Yoon added, "In particular, the arrival rate within the golden time has stagnated at an average of 35% nationwide, and Gyeongnam has ranked 14th nationwide with 31.4% over the past three years, which is among the lowest levels, indicating the need for measures to reduce time. When operating emergency vehicle priority signals, the travel time of emergency vehicles decreases by a maximum of 350% to a minimum of 24%, showing some variation in time, but the effectiveness of emergency vehicle priority signals has been quantitatively verified."