Police Close 'Minor Traffic Accidents' Without Criminal Charges as They Are Not Subject to Punishment

Police Amend Traffic Accident Investigation Rules
Broadly Guarantee Parties' Right to Appeal

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Gwan-ju] In the future, minor traffic accidents that are not subject to punishment will no longer result in the suspect status, and cases can be closed through insurance processing and settlements.

The National Police Agency’s National Investigation Headquarters (NIH) announced on the 12th that it has revised the Traffic Accident Investigation Regulations, which previously required criminal registration of parties involved in non-punishable personal injury traffic accidents.

According to the Special Act on Traffic Accident Handling, traffic accidents that do not involve death or serious negligence such as signal violations are excluded from punishment if the parties have comprehensive insurance or have reached an agreement, as prosecution cannot be initiated. However, until now, the police have registered parties involved in traffic accidents as suspects regardless of whether punishment was applicable, collecting fingerprints and retaining investigation data.

In fact, among the 209,654 personal injury traffic accidents reported to the police last year, 139,506 cases were handled as non-prosecutable incidents, indicating that 66.5% of traffic accident suspects did not need to be registered.

With this improvement, the number of such traffic accident suspects will significantly decrease, allowing them to be released early from the stressful status of being investigation targets. The police also expect that the workload of traffic accident investigations will be reduced, enabling them to focus more police resources on serious cases such as fatal or gross negligence accidents.

However, the NIH emphasized that while the criminal registration procedure will be omitted, the traffic accident investigation process remains the same, and cases will be managed through strict internal review and inspection. Notification penalties based on investigation results will be maintained to enhance drivers’ compliance with traffic laws. Cases will be closed after internal review by investigation supervisors, and the completeness of accident investigations will be improved through periodic inspections by city and provincial police agencies.

The parties’ right to appeal is also guaranteed through the "Re-investigation System." If a party disagrees, they can request a re-investigation from the city or provincial police agency, and if there is still an objection to the re-investigation results, they can request a review by a civilian review committee.

Additionally, the police plan to establish a computerized linkage system with the Korea Insurance Development Institute, automobile insurance companies, and mutual aid associations to quickly verify whether comprehensive insurance is in place, which is essential for traffic accident investigations. Once the computerized linkage is completed, the current six-step comprehensive insurance verification process will be reduced to three steps, improving the speed and accuracy of police investigations and significantly reducing the time and cost burden on accident parties.

The NIH stated, "This measure reflects the opinions of field police officers, lawyers, professors, and other related experts, which have been steadily raised." They added, "We will continue to improve work procedures in the field of traffic accident investigations to enhance public convenience and realize citizen-centered responsible investigations."

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