Supreme Court Confirms Guilt of Seoul Metro Employees in Sangwangsimni Station Subway Collision Case

A subway station in Seoul. The photo is unrelated to the article / Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Daehyun] Seoul Metro employees were confirmed guilty by the Supreme Court in connection with the collision accident at Sangwangsimni Station on Seoul Subway Line 2 in 2014, which injured hundreds of passengers.

On the 7th, the Supreme Court's 3rd Division (Presiding Justice Kim Jaehyung) announced that it upheld the original verdict sentencing seven Seoul Metro employees, including employee A, who were indicted on charges such as professional negligence causing injury.

Previously, A and others, who were respectively responsible for signal equipment inspection and management, and train control operations, were prosecuted for causing the train collision accident at Sangwangsimni Station on Seoul Subway Line 2 in May 2014 by failing to properly address abnormal signal phenomena, resulting in injuries to passengers.

The accident occurred when a train following another train stopped at the platform collided with it, injuring 388 passengers and causing property damage amounting to approximately 640 million KRW in train repair costs. Investigations revealed that the employees had identified issues such as the green signal light turning on even when the preceding train stopped, but they left work early without permission or failed to report to the company, neglecting to take appropriate measures.

The first trial court found them guilty and sentenced them to imprisonment ranging from 10 months to 1 year, suspended sentences for imprisonment, and fines of 10 million KRW.

The first trial court stated, "Modern large-scale accidents with multiple casualties, such as apartment collapses, ship sinkings, bridge collapses, department store collapses, and public transportation accidents, are mostly caused by the combined negligence of several people in stages." It also pointed out, "This accident also occurred due to the concurrent negligence of multiple people." Furthermore, it added, "If even one of the defendants had taken timely measures corresponding to their duty of care, the accident would not have occurred."

The appellate court partially accepted the defendants' claims regarding responsibility and changed the sentences of those who had received imprisonment to fines or suspended imprisonment. The Supreme Court also agreed with this judgment. The court stated, "There is no error in the original court's understanding of the law regarding breach of duty of care, substantial causation, and joint perpetration of negligence crimes," and dismissed all the defendants' appeals.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.