Driver convicted in City Hall car crash presents new black box footage during appeal

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Driver convicted in City Hall car crash presents new black box footage during appeal

Published: 08 Apr. 2025, 12:00 Updated: 08 Apr. 2025, 21:09

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

The 69-year-old driver surnamed Cha, who was convicted for driving 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]

The driver convicted for a deadly car crash near Seoul City Hall last July that killed nine people released black box footage on Monday during his appeal trial, asserting that the incident was unintentional.

The video, made public by the legal team of the 69-year-old driver, identified only by his surname Cha, captures the moment his vehicle exits a hotel parking lot. The car rapidly accelerates, and Cha can be heard repeatedly shouting, “It’s going!” at one-second intervals.

Cha was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison in the initial ruling. His legal team submitted the footage as part of an effort to support his claim that a mechanical malfunction — not driver negligence — was to blame for the crash.

Cha’s lawyer said the audio contradicts earlier police statements that the black box contained no dialogue from which the cause of the accident could be inferred.

In addition to the footage, Cha’s legal team presented evidence it claims supports a case of sudden unintended acceleration. The defense cited event data recorder (EDR) data showing an inverse relationship between the throttle valve opening and accelerator pedal displacement, arguing it indicated a malfunction in the electronic control unit (ECU).

It also raised the possibility of ECU failure as the reason the vehicle’s brake lights were not activated. As modern vehicles increasingly rely on ECU systems for autonomous driving functions, Cha’s lawyers claimed, signal-related malfunctions and other errors have become more common.

The defense also challenged testimony provided during the first trial by an official from the National Forensic Service (NFS).

According to court records, the NFS official testified that issues of sudden unintended acceleration exist only in Korea, and added, “In Japan, the United States, and Europe, such cases are considered the result of driver error, not mechanical failure.”

Cha cited the 2013 Bookout v. Toyota case in the United States in which vehicle defects were acknowledged as the cause of sudden unintended acceleration, leading to a settlement.

Cha was indicted for driving in the wrong direction and crashing through a guardrail into a sidewalk near City Hall at around 9:30 p.m. on July 1, 2024. The crash killed nine people and injured five others.

On Feb. 15, the Seoul Central District Court sentenced Cha to seven years and six months in prison, concluding there were no mechanical defects in the vehicle’s acceleration or braking systems and found no grounds to question the NFS’s forensic analysis.

The NFS had found no record of braking in the vehicle’s data at the time of the accident, while data showed repeated acceleration and release of the gas pedal. Investigators also noted that the tread pattern on the sole of Cha’s right shoe matched the accelerator pedal.

Cha has appealed the first ruling, and the first hearing in the appeal trial is scheduled for April 30.

Translated from the JoongAng Ilbo using generative AI and edited by Korea JoongAng Daily staff.

BY JANG GU-SEUL [[email protected]]