'Ttota Guardians' Protect Seoul Subway Safety... Over 60 Safety Measures Implemented Since Launch

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[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] The subway elevator continuous monitoring system "Ttota Guardians," jointly operated by Seoul Metro and the Korea Elevator Safety Agency, has achieved results by discovering and addressing more than 60 safety hazards within two months since its launch in June.

According to the corporation and the agency on the 19th, the "Ttota Guardians" system was implemented to identify and resolve unavoidable safety blind spots despite various safety efforts within the subway, such as regular elevator inspections conducted by the corporation. Starting from a simple idea proposed at a collaborative meeting held by the two organizations, it has developed into the first official safety expert collaboration group among domestic and international urban railway operators.

In the early stages after its launch, activities mainly involved simple malfunction reports such as broken parts. However, employees have gradually begun to utilize their expertise. Currently, the "Guardians" are engaged in advanced activities such as proactively detecting abnormal signs during operation, like noise generation and sensor malfunctions, and requesting corrective actions. Furthermore, they actively propose safety measures, including the additional posting of user safety posters.

Since its launch on June 1, the "Guardians" have reported a total of 64 elevator hazards within about two months, contributing to the prevention of major accidents such as user injuries. Thanks to the activities of Ttota Guardians, which help prevent passenger harm caused by facility malfunctions, injury accidents related to elevator equipment within the corporation’s operating sections decreased from four cases in June 2021 to one case in June this year.

Earlier this month, the "Guardians" began a special 10-day inspection on the 16th for elevator facilities at some subway stations in the metropolitan area that were flooded due to record-breaking heavy rain. They quickly checked for abnormalities in devices submerged or soaked in water at the station sites and notified the need for replacement of broken parts.

Meanwhile, besides jointly operating the "Guardians," the corporation is also focusing on promoting safety rules for elevator users. As a proactive response to the super-aged society, it has produced customized promotional materials to actively encourage elderly people to use elevators instead of escalators, completing the posting of 1,500 posters and 105 floor stickers, putting full effort into preventing safety accidents.

Song Seong-cheol, head of the Seoul Regional Headquarters of the agency, said, “We will take the lead in expanding the agency’s positive influence by spreading the successful case of the Guardians’ activities in Seoul to other regional headquarters and contributing to eliminating elevator safety blind spots.” Seo Gil-ho, head of the Sales Support Department at Seoul Metro, said, “We will continue to promote collaboration with various related organizations to ensure customer safety when using subway elevator facilities,” adding, “For accident prevention, the most important factor is users’ own efforts to secure safety, so we ask all customers to strictly follow elevator safety rules, such as holding the handrail when using escalators.”