보행교통사고 감소를 위한 종합적 법체계 정비방안 연구

The Korean record of pedestrian traffic accidents is the worst among OECD countries as the fatality rate of pedestrians out of all traffic fatalities was 38.9 percent in 2013. It was more than two times higher than the average pedestrian fatality rate, 19.1 percent, of OECD countries and was much higher than that of leading countries in terms of traffic safety such as Norway, 9.7 percent, the Netherlands, 10.7 percent, and France, 14.2 percent. One of the key reasons why Korea has recorded such a high rate of pedestrian accidents is an automobile-oriented transport policy which aims to increase the speed of automobiles on roads rather than to protect transport rights of the transport disadvantaged, such as pedestrians, elderly persons, disabled persons, women, pregnant women, and children. As transport laws have supported the speed-oriented transport policy in Korea, traffic safety laws which is part of the whole transport laws also have followed the same trend. To solve this problem, it is necessary to amend pedestrian safety laws from an automobile-oriented perspective to a pedestrian-oriented one. Since the traffic safety laws of European countries are based on a pedestrian-oriented principle, they can provide policy implications for amending Korean traffic safety laws. Therefore, this study has proposed several amendment proposals of traffic safety laws which aim to improve pedestrian safety. To produce them, it has reviewed laws, directives, and policies of pedestrian traffic safety in Korea, Europe and Japan. It also has analyzed legal precedents of pedestrian traffic accidents in Korea and has conducted a survey on those people who experienced pedestrian traffic accidents and traffic safety experts in Korea. The key problems of pedestrian safety laws that this study has selected are as follows: Reduced legal right of pedestrians, ineffectiveness of walking and silver zone regulations for elderly pedestrians, deficiency of pedestrian protection regulations at living area roads, legally over-protection of automobile drivers, weakness of pedestrian safety education and regulations, and deficiency of automobile technology and design regulation for pedestrian safety. Solutions for the problems are as follows: Strengthening of legal rights for pedestrians, tightening the regulations of silver zone and walking for elderly pedestrians, rationalization of legal system for recovering pedestrian rights at living area roads, reform of legal system by reducing the over protection of automobile drivers, strengthening the responsibility of pedestrians for safe walking, and improvement of automobile legal system to reduce pedestrian traffic accidents.