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Driver in deadly Seoul City Hall car crash sentenced to 7 years, 6 months in prison

Published: 12 Feb. 2025, 14:46

LIM JEONG-WON
[email protected]

A 69-year-old driver surnamed Cha, who drove a vehicle into a sidewalk near Seoul City Hall on July 1, 2024, killing nine people, walks into Seoul Central District Court in Seocho District, western Seoul, on Feb. 12. [NEWS1]

Seoul Central District Court sentenced the driver behind a car crash that killed nine people near Seoul City Hall last July to seven years and six months in prison in his first trial on Wednesday.

The 69-year-old driver, surnamed Cha, had been indicted on charges of violating the Special Act on Traffic Accidents. The prosecution had previously requested a sentence of the same severity, the heaviest sentence possible given the aggravating circumstances in the case.

Cha’s sentence mandates imprisonment but not hard labor during his confinement.

“The defendant's negligence resulted in the deaths of nine people and injuries to five others, which is irreversible and serious,” the court said. “The bereaved families have demanded severe punishment, and the defendant denies his guilt and shows no signs of remorse, necessitating a severe sentence commensurate with the crime.

“The defendant failed to reach an agreement with the victims, and no evidence has been submitted to show that he apologized to the bereaved families or made efforts to compensate them for the damages,” the court added.

Cha claimed that he operated the car's pedals correctly and that the vehicle had suffered a "sudden acceleration" due to a malfunction, but the court rejected the assertion.

“It is reasonable to assume that this accident occurred due to the defendant's negligence in not operating the pedals correctly, such as mistaking the accelerator pedal for the brake, and it is difficult to see that there was a vehicle malfunction as claimed by the defendant,” the court said.

The National Forensic Service (NFS) said the vehicle's data showed no record of the brake being used during the accident, while the accelerator pedal was repeatedly pressed and released. It also said the pattern on the sole of Cha’s right shoe matched the prints on the accelerator pedal. The NFS also confirmed that Cha had accelerated despite a stop sign on the street where the accident occurred.

The court said there were neither mechanical defects in the vehicle's accelerator and braking systems nor circumstantial evidence to refute the NFS’s assessment that Cha repeatedly pressed and released the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal at the time of the accident.

The court also noted the case's lack of "characteristic signs of a sudden acceleration accident."

“Cha changed lanes while driving 155 meters (169 yards) before crashing into the guardrail," the court said, adding that "if he had fulfilled the duty of care required of a normal driver, he could have prevented or reduced the deaths.”

Cha pulled out of the underground parking lot of the Westin Josun hotel near City Hall Station at around 9:26 p.m. on July 1 last year, driving in the wrong direction before crashing into the sidewalk, killing nine people and injuring five more.

Before the sentencing on Wednesday, Cha said he was “so, so sorry to the decreased and their bereaved families.”

BY LIM JEONG-WON [[email protected]]