3 charged, including truck driver, in deadly expressway tunnel fire

The police and firefighters inspect the garbage truck a day after a fire broke out from the truck on the Second Gyeongin Expressway killing five people last Thursday. [YONHAP]

Four people have been questioned by police in the investigation of a deadly highway fire that killed five last Thursday.

Three officials from The 2nd Seoul-Inchun Linking Highway Corp., which operates the expressway where the fire occurred, and one from contractor involved in the building of the noise-barrier tunnel that caught fire were questioned Monday, according to the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency.

The fire broke out Thursday afternoon inside a noise-barrier tunnel in Gwacheon on the Second Expressway Tunnel, also known as highway 110, which runs south of Seoul from Incheon toward the east and into the center of the country. The blaze probably started from a five-ton garbage truck and spread rapidly to the noise-barrier tunnel on the expressway, according to the fire department.

On Tuesday, the police charged two officials of the three officials from The 2nd Seoul-Inchun Linking Highway Corporation with professional negligence resulting in death. The driver of the five-ton garbage truck that caught fire was charged with professional negligence resulting in death last Friday.

The police questioned the officials from the highway company on Monday, specifically on the cause of the fire and their response to the incident.

For future investigation, the police will particularly focus on the failure to operate the tunnel entry blocking screen, which only worked properly on one end of the tunnel.

The entry of the tunnel that led to Anyang in Gyeonggi was not blocked when the fire broke out, as opposed to the other end of the tunnel, which was blocked in the direction of Seongnam, Gyeonggi.

The highway company has earlier told the press that the entry blocking system for the direction to Anyang may have not functioned properly due to “either electrical wires burning or the system not functioning well because of the fire.”

If the blocking system functioned properly, a screen-like blockade would have unrolled, blocking the entry, with warning lights.

The normal operation of the control system might have reduced casualties as the five who were found dead in their cars were all found on the side with traffic headed to Anyang, despite the fire starting on the road headed in the opposite direction.

The blocking screen has to be lowered manually.

The fire burned 600 meters (1,960 feet) of the 830-meter tunnel, killing five and injuring 41. Three are still in critical condition.

Authorities have blocked off 7.2 kilometers of the expressway.

In 2016, the Korea Expressway Corp. issued a report warning of the dangers of the acrylic material used in the making of the noise-barrier tunnels.

BY CHO JUNG-WOO, LEE SU-MIN [cho.jungwoo1@joongang.co.kr]