First 'Crowd Disaster Management Policy Council' Meeting of the Year Held on the 21st
The government has begun establishing measures to prepare for potential safety accidents in crowded places this year.
On the 21st, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety (MOIS) announced that it held the first 'Crowd Disaster Management Policy Council' of the year to discuss plans for managing safety in crowded gatherings.
Since November last year, MOIS has been operating this council to inspect whether the crowd safety management system is functioning properly on-site and to supplement any shortcomings. In January last year, 'crowd disasters' were classified as a type of social disaster, and in January this year, standard crisis management manuals were prepared for disaster management agencies, focusing on establishing safety management.
At the meeting, central government ministries (MOIS, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, Ministry of Oceans and Fisheries, Ministry of SMEs and Startups, and the National Police Agency), local governments (Seoul City, Gyeonggi Province, Yongsan District), and private experts attended to establish safety management plans by agency. They also reviewed countermeasures for key periods such as spring and autumn local events, Halloween, Christmas, and the year-end and New Year holidays.
During the meeting, central ministries and local governments agreed to investigate the current risk status of crowd accidents in their respective facilities and jurisdictions and to establish crowd safety management measures reflecting the investigation results by February.
To strengthen on-site response capabilities for crowd disasters, each local government will prepare an 'On-site Action Manual' by July and conduct education and training for disaster management responsible personnel.
Private experts suggested measures to prevent crowd accidents, including 'selecting priority management targets considering the characteristics of the location, limiting the maximum occupancy of small-scale multi-use facilities considering evacuation exits, expanding education for local government officials, and strengthening public awareness campaigns on behavioral guidelines.'
Hong Jong-wan, Director of Social Disaster Division at MOIS, stated, "We will continue to inspect and improve the safety management system in cooperation with related agencies to ensure that the crowd safety management system established by the government functions properly on-site."
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