People ride bicycles at a Han River park in Seoul. The photo is unrelated to the article. (Yonhap)
People ride bicycles at a Han River park in Seoul. The photo is unrelated to the article. (Yonhap)

A man in his 60s suffered three fractured neck bones after his bicycle's front wheel got caught in a gap in a facility at a Han River park and he was thrown to the ground. It has since emerged that the park management office had warned Mapo-gu District Office about the safety hazard roughly two months before the accident, but the facility was not replaced until after the man was injured.

On Tuesday, JTBC's Sageon Banjang (a current-affairs segment) reported on the case of the man, identified only as A, who was injured while cycling at Mangwon Hangang Park on July 29.

A was riding through an access ramp when the front wheel of his bicycle became lodged in a gap between steel road plates laid on the ground, flipping the bicycle over. The impact sent him and the bicycle airborne, and he landed face-first on the concrete.

"I don't remember anything from the moment I fell," A said. "I heard someone passing by had called 119. I must have been covered in blood, because they took me to a university hospital."

"My daughter said she was horrified the moment she saw the scene on CCTV," he said. "Even the hospital said it was a miracle I didn't die, and that I was lucky I wasn't left paralyzed."

A suffered fractures in three places in his neck, a concussion and facial abrasions in the accident. He also lost his front teeth.

He was hospitalized for more than a week and was unable to work for a month. His treatment costs so far have reached 3 million won ($2,240), and the cost of the scheduled neck surgery alone is expected to reach 8 million won.

When A visited the park management office to process the accident report, he learned that the office had told Mapo-gu District Office about safety concerns over the facility and the need to replace it on June 2, before the accident occurred.

But the facility was not replaced, and A was injured about two months later. Even after he was discharged and returned to the site, the same facility was still there.

"When I asked Mapo-gu District Office about compensation, they told me the facility was not covered by public facility liability insurance, so compensation would be difficult," A said. "Instead, I was only told I could receive about 200,000 won from bicycle accident insurance and about 400,000 won from insurance for Mapo-gu residents — a total of 600,000 won."

"With the upcoming surgery costs added in, my hospital bills alone will exceed 10 million won, and 600,000 won in insurance money is nowhere near enough," he said.

In response, Mapo-gu District Office told Sageon Banjang that it had taken temporary measures on the steel road plates in early June. "Since the plates were custom-made, the full replacement took time, and we completed the final replacement on Aug. 5, after the accident," the office said.

"We also explained to him that he could directly apply for a state compensation review," the office added.


bbo@heraldcorp.com