‘Ventilation Shaft’ trap in city without safety measure

Pangyo Techno Valley open-air concert tragedy that claimed lives of 16 people was a man-made disaster since it could have been prevented if the event host or the audiences had paid more attention to safety. On Oct. 17, right before the first performer ‘4Minute’ was about to perform on the stage, the concert’s MC said three or four times, “Please come down as it is dangerous,” to warn the people standing on the ventilation grill above the underground parking lot. However, people didn’t care about such warnings and the concert continued without any safety measures taken, resulting in a deadly disaster.

Only in 10 minutes after the concert began, the ventilation grate gave way to collapse down since the steel grill couldn’t stand the weight of audiences standing on it. The result could have been different, if the concert host had strongly demanded people standing on the ventilation shaft to come down by saying the show would not start if they keep standing. There was no safety staff in the venue, but the deadly disaster could have been avoided if the host sent other staff helping around the stage to take whatever measures. It is quite regrettable since the disaster was caused by the carelessness of the concert host and lack of safety awareness of the audiences.

The collapsed ventilation shaft was open directly from the ground to the parking lot in the fourth floor underground. It is truly a vulnerable structure which may lead to a deadly disaster if many people stand on it and the steel grate gives way. There is no safety regulation about ventilation shaft of a building’s underground parking lot, such as the criteria of the weight or load to stand. Due to such reasons, there is no way to regulate poorly-constructed ventilation shaft and it is hard to hold the construction company responsibility. How to build a ventilation shaft is all up to the construction company.

In the downtown of a big city where many people come and go, there are lots of ventilation shafts that connect to subways or underground parking lots. However, most of them have no safety facilities or warning signs to prevent access of people around the steel grate. To prevent reoccurrence of this disaster, it is urgent to establish safety regulations of the ventilation shaft. In a concert venue where many people gather around, potential risk lies in everywhere. Pangyo Techno Valley Festival was an open-air concert and the host didn’t receive any approval from the local government authority to hold the event. The Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism is belatedly taking actions to conduct a comprehensive review on the concert venue safety measures. Taking this deadly tragedy as a lessons-learned, safety manuals on the outdoor concert should be repaired to be on a par with the indoor concert.

Furthermore, there is pressing need for awareness of the public to refrain dangerous behaviors and follow the rules to prevent safety accident whether it is in a concert hall or a stadium. The deadly accident left a frustrating question as to what has been changed over safety in our society 6 months after the deadly Sewol ferry disaster.