Devastated family recalls life cut short by Seoul City Hall car accident

Flowers are seen on Wednesday on the street near Seoul City Hall where a fatal car accident took nine lives on Monday night. [YONHAP]

One of the victims of the fatal car accident that took nine lives near Seoul City Hall on Monday night was a 35-year-old man hanging out with two close co-workers at a company that took outsourced work from hospitals.

He was simply standing on the street waiting to cross the road when a vehicle plowed onto the sidewalk and struck him. Two of his colleagues, a 40-year-old man surnamed Park and a 38-year-old man surnamed Kim, were with him at the time.

Both were killed.

The three co-workers were reportedly very close.

“All three of them were good employees at their company and were known to be diligent,” said the mother of the 35-year-old. He was killed a year and a half after getting the job at his company, according to his mother.

The accident that took nine lives and left seven more injured happened at around 9:30 p.m. Monday when a car crashed onto a sidewalk near Seoul City Hall. The driver, a 68-year-old man identified Tuesday as a bus driver at a city bus company in Ansan, Gyeonggi, was arrested on the spot.

The funeral hall of Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno District, central Seoul, where the funerals of the three colleagues were held, was filled with mourners on Wednesday.

“My nephew had worked part-time jobs and saved up money to pay his own tuition,” said the 35-year-old victim’s uncle at the funeral hall. “He worked at Lotte World every weekend for over 10 years, and even after he got a full-time job, he worked seven days a week.”

A few days before the accident, the victim’s family had planned a family vacation to Jeju Island, according to the bereaved parents.

“We were planning to go to Jeju Island for summer vacation, and I keep thinking if we had gone on the trip earlier, this wouldn’t have happened,” said the father. “My son always worked very hard, even though it must not have been easy to save money while working for a small company.”

Because the victim died so young, it was hard to find a suitable photograph to use as a portrait during the funeral.

“We had no choice but to use the photo that my son recently sent me for his KakaoTalk profile picture when he was alive,” said the victim’s mother. “It feels like my son is looking at me when I look at that photo, and that he'll pop out of one of the rooms here and say hello.”

The driver from the accident was also injured in the crash and is receiving treatment, according to police.

“We plan to conduct a thorough questioning on the driver as soon as his condition improves,” said Chung Yong-woo, a senior police officer at the Namdaemun Police Precinct, during a briefing Wednesday. “We have also asked the National Forensic Service to examine the car in question to determine whether it may have malfunctioned during the accident.”

The 35-year-old victim’s funeral was held next to his co-workers Park’s and Kim’s. The victims’ families looked devastated as they met with guests who came to pay their last respects to the deceased.

The victim's parents have not eaten or slept since Monday, they said, and the younger brother contacted his brother’s friends and acquaintances through the phone that was left at the scene of the accident to let them know the tragic news.

“At least my son won’t be lonely since he is with his close colleagues,” the mother said in tears.

BY SON SUNG-BAE, LEE YOUNG-KEUN, PARK JONG-SUH, LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]