In the early morning on the 26th, a driver who had parked a vehicle on the shoulder of Incheon Bridge, the longest bridge in Korea, went missing, prompting the Coast Guard to begin a search.
According to the Incheon Coast Guard on the 26th, at about 3:39 a.m. that day, the Incheon Bridge situation room reported to the Coast Guard that "a person fell into the sea after stopping a vehicle."
The Coast Guard dispatched to the scene found a vehicle parked on the shoulder near the main tower of the bridge. Believing that driver A, a man in his 40s, had fallen, the Coast Guard deployed three patrol vessels to search the surrounding waters. A suicide note was reportedly found in the car.
Including A, there have been four cases this month of drivers who stopped on Incheon Bridge and then fell. On the 9th, 22nd, and 25th, drivers in their 30s each parked their vehicles and fell into the sea, dying. Since Incheon Bridge opened in 2009, 88 people have jumped, of whom 66 died and 14 went missing, according to records.
As jump incidents continued on Incheon Bridge, 1,500 plastic drums were installed on the bridge shoulder in Nov. 2022 to prevent parking and stopping, but all were removed last month to enable emergency response.
If you are experiencing depression or other difficult problems to talk about, or if a family member or acquaintance around you is going through such difficulties, you can receive 24-hour expert counseling through the suicide prevention hotline at ☎ 109 or the suicide prevention SNS counseling service "Madeulan."