More than 2,000 passengers were injured while using the subway in Seoul over the last five years. By subway line, Line No. 2 recorded the highest number of injured passengers. According to data released by Rep. Hwang Hee of the Democratic Party of Korea, a total of 2,485 passengers were involved in safety accidents while aboard subway Lines No. 1 to 9 from 2019 to August this year. By year, 671 passengers were record.
A 30-year-old office worker surnamed Lee, who travels on Seoul Metro Line 9 in her morning commute from Dangsan Station to Sinnonhyeon Station, got off the train midway on Monday morning, feeling shortness of breath. “I couldn t breathe. It s not the first time I felt like I was suffocating during my morning subway ride, but it was so serious, like a panic attack,” she said. Lee rides the express train on Line 9 which is infamous for its overcrowding during rush hour. As people kept cramming into the already-packed train, Lee couldn t stop imagining what it would have been like during the deadly crowd surge at Itaewon two days earlier.