Officials confirmed that the car’s auxiliary brake lights had not turned on when it was being driven on the wrong side of the road. - AP
SEOUL: South Korean police on Wednesday (July 3) said they have identified skid marks left by a car that killed nine pedestrians on July 1, which experts say could help reconstruct the accident.
Skid marks can be used to calculate a car’s speed at the time of an accident and can reveal whether the driver had attempted to brake before the collision.
The authorities are also reportedly using an event data recorder to investigate the moments leading up to the collision.
The device, which is installed in vehicles, records specific technical vehicle and occupant information for a brief period before, during and after a crash.
Police have also requested an investigation of black boxes and security camera footage from the accident site to verify the driver’s claim of a vehicle malfunction.
Officials have confirmed, based on an analysis of footage from nearby cameras, that the car’s auxiliary brake lights had not turned on when it was being driven on the wrong side of the road.
A thorough analysis of the car by the National Forensic Service has been requested by the police and will likely take at least one or two months.
Chung Yong-woo, a senior police officer at Namdaemun Police Station, told reporters during a briefing that another injury had occurred during the car crash in central Seoul, bringing the total number of casualties to 16, including the nine people who died.
The injured person was not present at the scene as he was accompanying another victim to the hospital at the time of the accident, said Chung.
The individual had sustained minor injuries and was a colleague of two employees at the Seoul Metropolitan Government who had died in the accident, according to reports citing authorities.
The 68-year-old driver, identified by his surname Cha, is reportedly a bus driver in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province and has over 40 years of driving experience.
The driver had barrelled into pedestrians at an intersection near Seoul City Hall at 9.27pm on July 1, after leaving a hotel to attend a family event. The Genesis sedan he was driving plowed through a pavement guardrail and struck people waiting to cross the road.
At the time of the incident, the vehicle was driving the wrong way on a one-way street. It collided with two cars after hitting the pedestrians, said Chung.
When asked about allegations that the driver got into the accident after getting into a fight with his wife, Chung said the rumour was “not true”.
While all eyes are on whether a sudden unintended acceleration was to blame for the deadly car crash or whether it was due to careless driving, police said they would question the driver as soon as his physical condition improves.
The wife, who was in the vehicle with the driver, told police during the first round of interrogations that “the brakes didn’t work”.
Meanwhile, the Seoul Metropolitan Government on the same day said it would team up with the Korean National Police Agency to discuss ways to strengthen driving licence aptitude tests for senior citizens, as well as encourage elderly people to give up their licences, amid a rise in the number of nationwide car accidents involving older drivers. - The Korea Herald/ANN
