Child traffic deaths in school zones have fallen sharply in South Korea, but the number of accidents has not. With pedestrian accidents accounting for more than half of the total, some elementary schools in Seoul have adopted what officials call "no-smombie" measures that block smartphone screens while children walk to class.
School Zone Accidents Persist as Government Expands Safety Measures
Child traffic deaths in school zones fell from nine in 2010 to eight in 2015, three in 2020 and one last year, according to the Ministry of the Interior and Safety. The number of accidents, however, has shown no clear downward trend.
Accidents dropped from 733 in 2010 to 511 in 2012 and hovered around 500 a year for some time. Last year the figure jumped to 927. The increase partly reflects accidents that had been omitted from earlier statistics, so it cannot simply be read as a surge from the previous year. Even so, it is difficult to conclude that school zone accidents have declined meaningfully over the long term.
The locations and types of accidents showed clear patterns. Of last year's child traffic accidents in school zones, 528, or 57%, occurred at intersections, and 236 of those involved crosswalks. By type, pedestrian accidents were the most common at 54%, followed by accidents involving children riding in vehicles at 26% and bicycle accidents at 19%.
The government is upgrading facilities along school routes and stepping up enforcement. This year it is spending 14.62 billion won (about $10.5 million) from a special disaster and safety grant to build sidewalks around 44 schools and install guardrails and other traffic safety equipment at 104 locations. It also plans to add enforcement cameras to reduce illegal parking that blocks drivers' lines of sight.
Stop signs will be installed at intersections without traffic lights or crosswalks, and the number of right-turn signals and diagonal crosswalks will be expanded. Authorities are conducting on-site enforcement of traffic violations in school zones and running a reporting program with civic groups, while also reviewing plans to create designated drop-off and pick-up areas for school vehicles at elementary schools.
Phones Lock Automatically Near School Gates, With 80% Satisfaction
Beyond changing the physical environment, officials are also trying to change how children walk.
Seoul's Jung District said on the 30th that it has been operating a smartphone restriction system on the walking route to Namsan Elementary School, near Myeongdong Station, since the 21st.
The school sits across from the Myeongdong special tourism zone, an area with heavy tourist and vehicle traffic. Along a 395-meter stretch adjoining the school there is no separate sidewalk, forcing children to share the road with cars. The road is too narrow to add one easily.
The district's target is the "smombie," a blend of smartphone and zombie that refers to people who walk while absorbed in their phones and fail to notice their surroundings.
Once a Namsan Elementary student installs a dedicated app, app use is automatically restricted when the student walks through a designated "safe zone" within the school zone. Use resumes when the student stops walking, and phone calls remain possible even while walking. Guardians can set time windows and check usage through a separate app.
The project began after a resident proposal to restrict smartphone use while walking was selected last year for the district's 2026 participatory budget. In a survey of Namsan Elementary parents in July, 97.4% of respondents supported the installation.
Schools that adopted similar systems earlier reported positive results. In a survey conducted after Jung District installed a smartphone restriction system at Cheonggu Elementary School in 2024, 80% of users said they were satisfied. Seventy-one percent said it helped prevent accidents, 84% said they would recommend it to others, and 87% said they would continue using it.
Seoul's Guro District has also designated 600 meters of walking routes at three elementary schools — Sinmirim, Onsu and Cheonwang — as "no-smombie zones" since August. The system links Bluetooth devices with an app on students' phones to automatically block screen use along the designated stretches.
Jung District is also improving the walking environment around Namsan Elementary. It plans to spend 60 million won secured this year from a special disaster and safety management grant on a project to create safer school routes in the area.
