The 17 workers at the underground site evacuated at 4:27 p.m., 49 minutes before the accident, as soon as they noticed the first signs of a collapse in the retaining wall. They even drove around a dozen excavators out of the site. In this situation, the safety crew at the construction site made just one phone call to Gajwa Station at 4:57 p.m., telling them to “slow the trains down” as they pass the station, due to problems in the foundation. After that phone call, four trains, including two with passengers, passed by slowly. The lives of 300 passengers had flirted with death. When they finally realized the retaining wall was collapsing after the four trains had passed by, safety workers at the site finally called telling operators not to let any trains pass through. Just one minute before the accident, a Mugungwha train that was on its way from north of Seoul to Yongsan Station was barely able to screech to a halt in front of Gajwa Station after receiving the order to stop.

A similar incident in 1993 at Gupo Station in Busan caused a train to roll over, resulting in 68 deaths. The train had derailed due to the construction work next to the tracks, despite signs that the foundation was shaky.

Residents living nearby say days before the accident, walls showed cracks, while windows shook often. The residents say they demanded builder Ssangyong Engineering and Construction to come up with measures to deal with the damage, but were ignored. It remains a mystery just what the supervising authority and the Korea Railroad or Korea Rail Network Authority, which should have been in charge of watching over the entire project, were doing all along. It seems life is cheap in Korea these days.