YouTuber and disability rights activist Park We apologizes after video of accident sparks criticism

YouTuber Park We, a disability activist who uses a wheelchair, apologized on Friday for his now-deleted video, which included CCTV footage of him falling while being assisted off a KTX train by station staff, saying that he had unfairly blamed the worker who tried to help him.

“I’m sorry for the concern caused by the video that I uploaded today,” Park wrote on the community page of his YouTube channel, Weracle, on Friday. “I failed to give enough thought to the staff member who did their best to help me at the scene and sincerely apologized [to me] afterward.”

Earlier that day, Park released CCTV footage of him at a KTX platform on Aug. 14. In the video, he descends a ramp in his wheelchair, but a wheel catches on the foot of the worker assisting him, causing him to fall.

In his apology statement, Park reflected on how he had viewed the incident solely in a negative light.

“I know that the worker didn’t mean for it to happen, but I was angry that their foot was on the ramp in the first place,” he said. “The worker apologized to me politely, but in that moment, I still couldn’t make sense of what had happened. I was frightened, thinking how badly I could have been hurt.”

“I didn’t handle the situation thoughtfully or communicate properly. I apologize to everyone who did their best to help me at the scene, as well as to everyone who watched the video,” he continued.

He then vowed to take a more considerate and mature approach to his future work.

“I’ll take the feedback to heart and approach my work with greater care and maturity,” he said. “I’ll learn from this experience and be more thoughtful and responsible in everything that I do. I sincerely apologize once again.”

In Friday’s deleted clip, Park said that station employees told him that similar accidents had happened before.

“A station employee […] told me that because manual wheelchairs are lightweight, accidents like this can sometimes happen when coming down the ramp,” he said. “But I don’t think that this should ever happen. We need proper safety training to eliminate that risk. I also think wheelchair users need to be assisted with greater care and attention.”

According to Park, the video was “not intended to criticize or hold any particular individual responsible” but to help prevent accidents involving wheelchair users. 

Critics, however, questioned whether releasing CCTV footage of the accident was necessary, given that the worker had already apologized. Park eventually removed the video.

Some users even criticized Park’s wife, singer Song Ji-eun, by leaving comments under her Instagram posts, telling her to “keep an eye on her husband” and “pay more attention to what he posts on YouTube.”

SBS, a major Korean broadcaster, on Sunday closed the comments section of a YouTube clip featuring Park from an entertainment show.

Park, who has 1 million YouTube subscribers, was diagnosed with full-body paralysis after falling from a building in 2014. After years of rehabilitation, he now uses a wheelchair. In 2022, he received a municipal welfare award for his contributions to improving awareness of disabilities and promoting human rights.

BY KIM EUN-BIN [[email protected]]