교통사고와 교통문화

• 영문명: Traffic Accidents and Traffic Culture
• 발행기관: 서강대학교 생명문화연구소
• 저자명: 이순철
• 간행물 정보: 『생명연구』제3집, 139~171쪽, 전체 33쪽
• 주제분류: 인문학 > 기타인문학
• 파일형태: PDF
• 발행일자: 1997.11.20

영문 초록

Despite the positive aspect of cars, which make human life convenient and also expand our living space, rapid increase in the number of cars have also increased the number of people who have failed to adapt to this traffic culture - people who suffer from physical, psychological, economic agony caused by traffic accidents. Considering the present condition of traffic accidents and their causes, it becomes evident that among the causes, there exists a behavior that ignores the dignity and respect for the human life. About 12,000 deaths occur from traffic accidents, and approximately 300,000 people get hurt, annually. Most of these accidents are caused by human mistakes and carelessness. On the other hand, accidents depend on the action of the traffic participants in the physical traffic condition comprised of roads, traffic safety facilities and vehicles. In the case of our traffic condition, this increase in traffic accidents is not surprising owing to the low social overhead capital investment in traffic facilities like roads. Moreover, the trend of belittling the value human life has taken advantage of the high speed and anonymity of cars, contributing to the increase in traffic accidents. In order to ensure the dignity and respect for life in traffic accidents, we need to urgently call for a traffic safety training that foster healthy traffic behavior. Traffic safety training should be designed to fit different age groups from children to the elderly, and should be comprised to systematically understand traffic safety. Since most schools lack adequate traffic safety training, driving tests and driving schools are expected to provide the basic traffic safety training. Also, traffic policy and administration should have their ground in understanding the driver's behavior, and safety facilities in particular should be set up and operated to make up for the driver's mistakes and human limitation. To prevent traffic accidents, the consciousness of drivers, pedestrians and policymakers should be reformed. Traffic safety training should start out from the understanding of the value of human life, and should help people be sensible drivers and pedestrians to avoid being the violators rather than escape from being the victims. Human attitude and behavior is formed in a sociocultural background, and change in society as a whole and driving behavior does not occur independently, but mutually influence one another. If the change in traffic administration is directly related to life to form a pleasant and safe traffic system, this will contribute to changing the negative value system of the society to that of the positive.