Gwangju Downtown Cafe Crash Vehicle Inspection: "No Vehicle Defects Found"

A driver who crashed a passenger car into a cafe in operation, resulting in one death and six injuries, claimed sudden unintended acceleration, but the National Forensic Service found no defects in the vehicle.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

According to the Dongbu Police Station in Gwangju on the 10th, the police received the National Forensic Service's report stating that there were "no defects in the vehicle" of the Grandeur IG passenger car driven by Mr. A (65), who crashed into a cafe in Daein-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju, last April.

Analysis of the vehicle's event data recorder showed no history of brake manipulation, and the driving recorder indicated that the accelerator pedal was engaged at the time of the accident, with the vehicle traveling at a speed of 73 km/h.

Earlier, Mr. A was charged with crashing his Grandeur into a cafe in Daein-dong, Dong-gu, Gwangju, around 12:14 p.m. on April 18, causing one death and injuring six people.

Investigations revealed that Mr. A was neither intoxicated nor unlicensed at the time of the accident.

Mr. A claimed sudden unintended acceleration, stating that the vehicle's speed rapidly increased just before the accident site, causing him to lose control of the car. The police sent the vehicle to the National Forensic Service to request an investigation into sudden unintended acceleration.

Initially, the police booked Mr. A on charges of injury under the Special Act on Traffic Accident Processing and investigated the accident circumstances, but the charges were upgraded to injury resulting in death following the fatality.

With the National Forensic Service's report confirming no defects in Mr. A's vehicle, the police plan to summon Mr. A, who is currently hospitalized, soon to investigate the circumstances, including whether there was any misoperation of the accelerator pedal.

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