Police hold 4-hour questioning at hospital with driver in deadly City Hall crash
![Police officials from the Seoul Namdaemun Police Precinct walk into Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Wednesday to question the driver involved in the Seoul City Hall car accident that took nine lives on July 1. [NEWS1]](https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/data/photo/2024/07/11/62742223-b003-44df-a2f4-405f92322d79.jpg)
Police officials from the Seoul Namdaemun Police Precinct walk into Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno District, central Seoul, on Wednesday to question the driver involved in the Seoul City Hall car accident that took nine lives on July 1. [NEWS1]
Police conducted a second investigation late Wednesday into the driver involved in the fatal car crash near Seoul City Hall that killed nine people on July 1.
Police officials from the Seoul Namdaemun Police Precinct visited Seoul National University Hospital in Jongno District, central Seoul, Wednesday afternoon and questioned the 68-year-old driver, surnamed Cha, for four hours. Cha is currently being treated for broken ribs and blood in his lungs, injuries he sustained from the accident.
Cha’s lawyer was reportedly present during the questioning, conducted by four officials from the Seoul Namdaemun Police Precinct.
The driver repeated Wednesday the claim that his car had gone faulty due to sudden unintended acceleration, maintaining his stance from the first round of questioning. Police conducted the first round of questioning on Cha last Thursday.
In the first round, Cha claimed that he “applied the brakes of the vehicle at the time of the accident but it was hard” and stated that while he was familiar with the roads near Seoul City Hall, he was unaware that turning left into the one-way road was prohibited.
“We conducted the investigation considering the suspect’s condition and plan to conduct follow-up investigations in consultation with the suspect and his lawyer,” a police official said.
Cha’s vehicle, a Genesis G80, sped in the wrong direction on a one-way road near Seoul City Hall on July 1, hitting pedestrians and crashing through the guardrails of a sidewalk before colliding with two other vehicles and halting.
Nine people died in the accident, and seven more were injured.
BY LIM JEONG-WON [lim.jeongwon@joongang.co.kr]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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