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2 dead, over 60 injured in 105-car pileup on bridge near Incheon airport

February 11, 2015

Authorities investigate the scene of a 100-car collision on the Yeongjong Bridge connecting the western port city of Incheon to Incheon International Airport on an island on Feb. 11, 2015. (Yonhap)

INCHEO (Yonhap) — Two people were killed and more than 60 others were injured on Wednesday as more than 100 vehicles piled up on a bridge near Incheon International Airport in foggy weather, police said.

The collision took place at 9:34 a.m. on the Seoul-bound side of the bridge linking the western port city with an island where the airport, South Korea’s main gateway, is located.

A total of 63 people were injured and taken to nearby hospitals. Ten of them were in serious condition, while two were in critical condition, authorities said.

Of the injured, seven were Chinese, three Thai, two Vietnamese and two Filipino. The other four foreign nationals were Japanese, Russian, Bangladeshi and Swiss, respectively.

One of the two Vietnamese victims was in serious condition, firefighters said.

The bodies of the two victims have been moved to hospitals in Goyang, a northern Seoul suburb, and western Incheon, respectively, police said. They were identified only as a 51-year-old surnamed Kim and a 46-year-old surnamed Lim.

Police said a taxi in the first lane bumped another taxi in front of it into the second lane. An airport limousine bus ran into the second taxi, causing a mass collision of cars behind it.

The visibility on the bridge was low at 10 meters, with the pileup spanning 1.3 kilometers, authorities said.

Police and firefighters had cordoned off the entire Seoul-bound section of the bridge, but reopened it for traffic at 3:12 p.m.

Firefighters from several nearby areas were dispatched to the scene.

The Incheon Seobu Police Station said it has created a task force to analyze the cause of the accident.

“Our understanding is that there are three locations where the accident started,” An Jeong-gyun, head of the police station, told reporters. “We’ll try to wrap up our investigation soon and ask for help from related agencies if there are specific problems with the bridge.”

According to the operator of Incheon International Airport, dense fog disrupted operations at the airport in the morning, causing some 30 flights to be suspended or delayed. Around noon, operations returned to normal, it said.