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NHRCK Recommends Measures to Prevent Falls of Disabled People at Subway Stations
Date : 2007.03.29 00:00:00 Hits : 1563
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) recommended to the municipal authority of Incheon as well as the Incheon Rapid Transit Corporation that old lifts at subway stations be replaced by new lifts suitable for automatic wheelchairs and that safety devices to prevent falls be installed as part of efforts to expand convenience facilities for the disabled.
In September 2006, the Incheon Chapter of the Korea Association for Human Rights of the Disabled with Cerebral Diseases filed a complaint with the NHRCK, arguing that ？ disabled person named Kim (female) sustained a serious injury when she fell from a wheelchair lift at Shinyeonsu Station of the Incheon Subway on September 4, 2006 in her own automatic wheelchair. This was because of a failure to install proper safety devices on the lift, set up in 1999, and to install an elevator for the disabled at the station. This is discrimination against the disabled.
The wheelchair lift at Shinyeonsu Station is unsafe and structurally unfit for an automatic wheelchair. The victim known as Kim fell from the lift in her automatic wheelchair and sustained a severe head injury. Numerous disabled people still take the risk of using the wheelchair lift because they have no other choice at the subway station, even though they know the lift is unsafe.
The obligation to provide disabled people with convenience facilities for their mobility entails more than perfunctorily offering relevant facilities. Equipment suitable for auxiliary devices promoting the mobility of the disabled should be provided and the convenience and safety of its use must be guaranteed to the extent that people with disabilities can enjoy the right to move to and from subway platforms as easily as people with no disabilities.
Manual wheelchairs were once widely used in Korean society by crippled persons. However, the use of automatic wheelchairs has been gradually increasing in line with changes in the society. Thanks to revision of the Enforcement Rule of the National Health Insurance Act, the National Health Insurance Corporation has covered 80% of the standard purchase price of expensive prosthetic devices including electric scooters and automatic wheelchairs since April 2005. This has enabled many disabled persons to buy automatic wheelchairs, promoting their common use.
The Commission determined that the Incheon Rapid Transit Corporation ？the party in charge of installing, operating, and managing the facilities in question ？should replace lifts suitable for manual wheelchairs with lifts for automatic wheelchairs and install elevators for the disabled. By improving those facilities, the Incheon Rapid Transit Corporation should enable disabled people to arrive at a subway station in their automatic wheelchairs in a free and safe manner rather than providing perfunctory services to them. The Commission also finds that the municipal authority of Incheon is obligated to provide guidance and supervision as to whether convenience facilities for the disabled are set up and operated properly and safely at subway stations, in compliance with applicable laws.
In the process of investigation by the Commission, the Incheon municipal authority and the Incheon Rapid Transit Corporation said that they planned to replace old lifts with new lifts for automatic wheelchairs in the first half of 2007 to prevent future accidents and to install elevators for the disabled at each Incheon subway station by 2011, with installation of elevators for the disabled at two or three stations including Shinyeonsu Station placed on the front burner. The Commission welcomes the plan of the Incheon municipal authority and the Incheon Rapid Transit Corporation to make such expanded convenience facilities available and expects that their effort will assure disabled people of the safety and convenience of mobility.
Review of Applicable Law - Act on the Promotion and Guarantee of Access for the Disabled, the Aged, and Pregnant Women to Facilities and Information
Article 4 of said Act provides that disabled people, without the assistance from others, are entitled to use facilities and equipment as are used by people with no disabilities on equal terms and to freely access such information as is accessible by people with no disabilities so as to guarantee their right to human dignity and value as well as happiness. Article 10(2) of said Act stipulates that an agency in charge of managing relevant facilities shall provide guidance and supervision as to the installation and operation of convenience equipment at such facilities. Article 23(1) of said Act also provides that the agency above must offer necessary guidance and supervision as regards the installation and operation of convenience equipment at facilities it manages. In cases where any such facilities are in violation of applicable law, the agency may order the owners of those facilities to take corrective action including installation and improvement of convenience equipment to ensure compliance with applicable law by a deadline specified by Chairperson Decree.

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