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| Korea |
| Koreans may build a railroad around US base to prevent more accidents |
| 2003-08-01 |
| When the 2nd division moves to Pyeongtaek or Osan, Seoul may construct a local railroad line that connects the new base and with the Yeongpyeong training grounds in Pocheon, Cho said. "This will prevent accidents when U.S. forces move to the northern training area." Nothing was mentioned in the article about whether or not the South Korean government will eventually cover the entire country with railroads to prevent traffic accidents all together, but for now Koreans can rest assured - those bad driving, imperialist occupying American soldiers won’t be "accidentally" running over anymore school girls. |
| Posted by:duh |
| #9 Yank: I went back and researched some more. Narrow road, two convoys of armored vehicles moving in opposite directions, and a broken intercom are the basic facts. Here is a fairly unbiased account. Here is a very emotional account with pictures. From the photos, the girls seem to have had room to jump out of the way, but did not. The thing we'll never know is what was going through the girls' minds: frozen with fear, playing a game that they'd "won" many times before, or so deafened by one convoy that they didn't hear the second. Its a tragedy and it needn't have happened. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2003-8-1 6:26:02 PM |
| #8 Yank: I heard a third-hand rumor that the girls were playing chicken. I've seen similar stuff happen in Germany (without the dead kids) so it's possible. I doubt we'll ever know due the extreme political sensitivity of the incident. The soldiers (track commander and driver) weren't prosecuted, so I've always assumed that they weren't at fault. If there had been any American or Korean testimony that the TC and driver had acted negligently, there would have been a court martial. |
| Posted by: 11A5S 2003-8-1 5:10:39 PM |
| #7 John writes: OK, I'll bite. Who is going to keep the schoolgirls off the railway tracks? That sounds like a job for me!! |
| Posted by: Scott Ridder 2003-8-1 3:37:56 PM |
| #6 Don't want to blame the dead but it's been nagging me for months. How is it that the school girls didn't see/hear/feel an APC/Tank coming there way? |
| Posted by: Yank 2003-8-1 2:26:09 PM |
| #5 Another sign that it's time to go. |
| Posted by: Hiryu 2003-8-1 2:10:39 PM |
| #4 oh man, now I have to get the windex... |
| Posted by: Rafael 2003-8-1 1:37:53 PM |
| #3 OK, I'll bite. Who is going to keep the schoolgirls off the railway tracks? |
| Posted by: john 2003-8-1 1:01:11 PM |
| #2 those bad driving, imperialist occupying American soldiers won’t be "accidentally" running over anymore school girls. Actually, we have a better way of preventing accidental deaths among Korean civilians during American military exercises. It's called troop withdrawal, which we should have carried out years ago. As much as I detest Carter, I think he had the right instincts on South Korea - pulling out will serve American interests better than staying there. My suspicion is that our deployment in South Korea will prove to be useless for any future confrontation with China - South Korea will declare its neutrality while leaving our troops stranded. |
| Posted by: Zhang Fei 2003-8-1 12:43:15 PM |
| #1 This from a country that has a car called the K.I.A. |
| Posted by: SPQR 2755 2003-8-1 12:32:04 PM |