Korea Transportation Safety Authority Operates Public Reporting Team to Ensure Motorcycle Traffic Safety

The Korea Transportation Safety Authority is recruiting the ‘2023 Traffic Safety Public Reporting Group’ to report traffic law violations in order to ensure the safety of two-wheeled vehicles.

The public reporting group targeting two-wheeled vehicles has been operating a kind of paparazzi system since the second half of 2020 to reduce two-wheeled vehicle accidents. Over the past three years (May 2020 to December 2022), about 5,000 citizens have participated annually as members of the public reporting group, reporting a total of 476,579 illegal acts involving two-wheeled vehicles.

The activities of the public reporting group are analyzed to have contributed to the reduction in the number of fatalities from two-wheeled vehicle traffic accidents. In fact, the number of deaths from two-wheeled vehicle traffic accidents decreased from 614 in 2017 to 457 in 2021.

This year, the Authority plans to recruit 5,000 members for the Traffic Safety Public Reporting Group again and continue its operation, offering rewards for public reports to encourage participation.

Rewards will be paid according to the reported items, including the Road Traffic Act (four items such as riding on sidewalks), the Serious Traffic Law (signal violations, crossing the center line), and the Motor Vehicle Management Act (obscuring or damaging license plates).

Additionally, a ‘Special Traffic Law Violation ZERO Campaign’ will be implemented to temporarily increase rewards for major traffic accident causes by period and issue, further strengthening public reporting.

Furthermore, starting from the second half of this year, reporting items will be expanded to include not only violations by two-wheeled vehicles but also violations of pedestrian protection by vehicles at crosswalks.

However, if a reporter violates traffic laws themselves to capture evidence or uses abusive language toward police officers, public officials, or related personnel, which goes against the purpose of the system, their activities may be restricted.

Kwon Yong-bok, President of the Korea Transportation Safety Authority, stated, “We will do our best to create a safe traffic culture by reducing traffic accident fatalities and fulfill the role of the Authority as a public institution in accordance with the changing traffic environment in the future.”