Seoul City Hall, local businesses mourn loss of colleagues in car accident that killed nine

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Seoul City Hall, local businesses mourn loss of colleagues in car accident that killed nine

Published: 02 Jul. 2024, 16:43 Updated: 03 Jul. 2024, 15:52

LIM JEONG-WON
lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr

A citizen leaves flowers at the scene of the accident that killed nine people on Monday night near Seoul City Hall on Tuesday. [KIM SUNG-RYOUNG]

Nine people were killed and six injured when a car crashed onto a sidewalk near Seoul City Hall on Monday night.

Of the nine fatalities, two were Seoul city government employees, four were employees at a nearby bank and three were employees at a company doing outsourced work from hospitals.

At around 9:30 p.m. Monday, a black Genesis car driven by a 68-year-old man accelerated onto a sidewalk near City Hall Station in Jung District, central Seoul. The vehicle was driving the wrong way on a one-way street and ran over several pedestrians and the guardrails of the sidewalk before halting, according to witnesses at the scene.

Ten people were immediately reported to be in a state of cardiac arrest as a result of injuries suffered in the accident, with six of them pronounced dead at the scene and three more pronounced dead at nearby hospitals. The driver was arrested immediately by the police.

The two Seoul city government employees who died were walking back to City Hall after dinner to work late the night of the accident, according to colleagues of the deceased workers. Another colleague who was with them at the time and suffered injuries was discharged from the hospital Tuesday morning.

The three city government employees were from the tax division, and one of the deceased had just received two awards for good workplace performance, said his colleagues.

“The irony that this tragedy happened when my colleague had just received good news and commendations for his hard work breaks my heart,” said one of the deceased city government employee’s colleagues.

First responders are clearing the scene of a fatal car accident near Seoul City Hall in downtown Seoul late Monday. [NEWS1]

The four bank employees who died were colleagues from the same nearby bank, according to the police and the financial industry. Three of them died at the scene, and the fourth was moved to a hospital in a state of cardiac arrest but died.

One of the four bank employees had been promoted on Monday, and the four colleagues had been out late to celebrate, according to local reports. Three were in their 50s, and one was in his 40s.

The three employees of an outsourced company were men in their 30s to 40s, according to the police.

Bereaved relatives of the victims of the car accident Monday were notified of the deaths in the early hours of Tuesday and rushed to the funeral halls of hospitals near City Hall. Many of them were in shock to find that their loved ones were killed in a freak accident on what should have been a typical Monday.

A visitor pays respects to one of the deceased at the funeral hall of the National Medical Center in Jung District, central Seoul, on Tuesday. [NEWS1]

The driver of the car involved in Monday's fatal accident, identified Tuesday as a bus driver employed at a city bus company in Ansan, Gyeonggi, with over 40 years of driving experience, reportedly claimed that he had lost control of the vehicle due to sudden unintended acceleration. According to the police, he was arrested for violating the Act on Special Cases concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents.

“Whether the accident was caused by sudden unintended acceleration is being currently investigated, but even if the car accelerated on its own, the charges against the driver would not change,” said Chung Yong-woo, a senior police officer at the Namdaemun Police Precinct, during a briefing Tuesday. “We have requested the National Forensic Service to examine the vehicle to determine the cause of the crash.”

According to Chung, the police were gathering evidence and witness testimonies and preserving the accident scene as of Tuesday. However, they have not thoroughly examined CCTV or dashcam data to determine how the crash happened.

Chung Yong-woo, a senior police officer at the Namdaemun Police Station, speaks during a briefing Tuesday on the accident near Seoul City Hall. [YONHAP]

The driver was not intoxicated nor under the influence of drugs when the police took tests from him at the scene, but Chung said that the police plan to conduct additional blood tests on him. The police also plan to question the driver’s wife, who was riding in the passenger seat of the car at the time of the accident.

President Yoon Suk Yeol received a report of the car crash Monday night and ordered the interior minister and fire authorities to “do everything within their power to rescue and treat the victims,” the presidential office said in a statement.

On Tuesday, Yoon again addressed the accident during a Cabinet meeting, pointing to several serious accidents that have occurred in the past few months, including the battery factory fire at Hwaseong, Gyeonggi, that left 23 dead on June 24.

Correction, July 3: An earlier version of this article misstated that the car was driving backward.