Driver of Seoul City Hall station car crash claims sudden acceleration but experts say ‘unlikely’

Police and rescue workers clean up the scene of a deadly car crash that killed nine people near City Hall Station in Seoul on July 1. Kwon Do-hyun

"It's too early to tell, but the possibility of sudden unintended acceleration seems small," said automobile experts, referring to a deadly car crash near Seoul City Hall Station which killed nine pedestrians and injured six others on July 1.

According to closed-circuit (CC) TV footage near the scene of the accident on the 2nd and witness testimony, the Genesis G80 of the 68-year-old driver left the Westin Chosun Hotel near City Hall Station the night before and drove backwards on a four-lane road. The black box video released by Newsis showed that the vehicle hit two other vehicles and then plowed into near exit 12 of City Hall Station, where the victims were standing. In the video released by Yonhap News TV, the car slammed into other cars and hit the dead before crossing the intersection and coming to a stop on its own. "The only evidence we have that it was sudden acceleration is the suspect's statement," police said.

Experts said the crash does not look like a typical case of sudden unintended acceleration. The fact that the car stopped itself after the collision is what distinguishes it from the other cases. "I've seen many cases of unintended acceleration in Korea, but I've never seen a vehicle stop like this," said Yeom Gun-woong, a professor of police fire administration at Yuwon University. "The video also doesn't show the driver trying to avoid hitting people."

Kim Pil-soo, a professor of automotive engineering at Daelim University who serves as the chairman of the Automotive Sudden Acceleration Research Association, said, "I have reservations about judging a case is sudden acceleration when the vehicle's progress is short between five to six seconds."

There was also a diagnosis that the driver's individual condition may have been a problem.

He also suggested that the driver's condition may have been a factor. "When an accident happens, many people say that their heads become white and they don't remember, so they use sudden acceleration as an excuse," said Kim. "There is a precedent that a car crash occurred after a driver and a passenger fought, so we cannot rule out the possibility that the driver had a conflict with the passenger."

Experts also pointed out what needs to be revealed in the police investigation. "It is necessary to check whether the rear lights of the vehicle were blinking or kept turning on," said Lee Ho-geun, a professor of future automotive at Daedeok University. "If they were blinking, the emergency braking device was activated, but there is a possibility that the driver mistook the accelerator pedal for the brake and kept stepping on it and moving forward.”

※This article has undergone review by a professional translator after being translated by an AI translation tool.