Tesla Car Owner Death Accident: Substitute Driver Sentenced to 1 Year Imprisonment in First Trial

A designated driver who was prosecuted for causing the death of the car owner riding in the passenger seat by mistakenly pressing the accelerator pedal of a Tesla vehicle was sentenced to imprisonment without labor.

On the 15th, Judge Song Kyung-ho of Criminal Division 5 at the Seoul Western District Court sentenced Choi (63), who was indicted for violating the Special Act on Traffic Accident Handling (causing death), to one year of imprisonment without labor. Imprisonment without labor is a punishment that confines the convict to prison but does not forcibly require labor, unlike penal servitude.

The court stated, "The defendant caused a traffic accident due to negligence in misoperating the accelerator pedal, resulting in a serious outcome that led to the victim's death."

The court found that Choi did not press the brake pedal, considering that the accelerator pedal's variation reached 100% just before the accident and that the vehicle's brake indicators were not lit at the time of the accident.

It also cited the National Forensic Service's inspection of the accident vehicle's braking system, which found no abnormalities that could have caused brake failure. However, to guarantee the defendant's right to defense, the court did not order detention.

Choi is accused of causing the death of Yoon, the car owner, who was riding in the passenger seat, by crashing the Tesla vehicle into a parking garage wall in the basement of an apartment in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, in December 2020. Yoon was known to be a lawyer affiliated with a major law firm. Choi claimed that the vehicle had a defect.

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