"Unpredictable at Night"... Driver Who Caused Fatal Accident and Fled Found Not Guilty

A driver who caused a fatal accident and fled was acquitted in the second trial.

On the 25th, the 3-1 Criminal Appeal Division of Daegu District Court (Presiding Judge Kim Kyunghoon) overturned the original sentence of 2 years and 6 months in prison with a 4-year probation and acquitted A (28), who was charged with violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes.

A was prosecuted for driving a passenger car at 70 km/h, exceeding the speed limit of 64 km/h, on a road in Uiseong, Gyeongbuk, at 10:52 p.m. on June 24, 2020, hitting and killing B, a person in their 20s lying in the middle of the road, and fleeing the scene.

The first trial judged that A was negligent in speed control and front observation based on witness testimony that B was wearing light-colored clothes at the time of the accident, and the fact that other drivers had apparently noticed B in advance and avoided him. A claimed that it was practically impossible to avoid B, who was lying on the road at the time, because he had noticed him in advance.

The court considered that the accident road was a four-lane road with a central divider, making it difficult to expect pedestrian crossing, that there were no streetlights at night and it was raining, making visibility poor, and that the speed exceeding the limit was only 6 km/h, concluding that A would have found it difficult to foresee such an unusual situation at the time.

The court ruled, "Based on the submitted evidence alone, it is difficult to recognize that the defendant was negligent in the performance of his duties or that, even if there was negligence, there is a significant causal relationship with the accident," and acquitted him.

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