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This photo, taken from a news report by local broadcaster KBS, shows cars speeding past belching smoke in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, on Dec. 6. (KBS) |
Video of a deadly car crash in Gangneung, Gangwon Province has made the public wonder whether “sudden unintended acceleration” was the cause of the accident.
The video of the accident showed that on December 6, a 68-year-old woman drove a car for about 600 meters.
The car crashed into a roadside ditch, killing her 12-year-old grandson and seriously injuring the driver.
“Oh my God, why didn’t this work? Oh, something went wrong,” the terrified driver said in video captured by the car’s dashcam.
The family of the deceased argued that the accident was caused by sudden unintended acceleration.
“We could see the brake lights on (in the surveillance camera video) while the car sped forward,” the victim’s father and the driver’s son told local media.
Some experts have also observed that considering factors such as loud noise, abnormal oil fume emissions, and the length of the car’s acceleration time, it may also be a sudden acceleration.
“The video shows a typical scene of sudden acceleration and even shows smoke from the tires (generated during braking),” Kim Pil-soo, a professor of automotive engineering at Daelim University, told local broadcaster KBS.
The investigation is ongoing but police have charged the driver with accidental homicide, which the family says is unjust.
Since 2017, there have been more than 200 car accidents caused by sudden unintended acceleration, according to the Korea Transportation Safety Agency. The automaker has yet to accept a single case caused by a product error.
The maker of the crash has vowed to work with police to find out what was behind the crash.
Lin Zaicheng (forestjs@heraldcorp.com)
