Rest in peace to the dead!
At around 9:30 p.m. on the 1st of this month, a major traffic accident occurred at an intersection near Jung-gu City Hall Station in Seoul, South Korea, killing nine people and injuring six others.
At that time, 70-year-old (68-year-old is also reported) driver A drove a Genesis car in the wrong direction on the four-lane one-way street, first hitting two BMW and Santana cars one after another, and then hitting pedestrians waiting for signal lights on the crosswalk, and then moved another 100 meters, until the opposite city hall station Exit 12 did not stop.
Although safety barriers were placed on the pedestrian crossings, they did not reduce casualties. In the aftermath of the accident, the safety barriers were damaged to the point where they were unrecognizable, and the glass doors and windows of the shops on the sidewalks were shattered.
It is reported that A traveled a total of 200 meters in the retrograde, causing the death of four men in their 50s, four men in their 30s, and one man in their 40s. In addition, a man in his 40s, a man in his 30s, a woman in his 60s, and a man in his 70s were injured, and A and his co-passenger (A's wife) are also currently hospitalized due to their injuries.
After testing, A did not drink alcohol or take drugs, and he claimed that the cause of the accident was a defect in the vehicle itself and suddenly accelerated, and the police decided to collect evidence by analyzing his dashcam video, surrounding surveillance video and eyewitness statements. A police source said: "Although the possibility of sudden acceleration of the vehicle will also be investigated, this will not change A's criminal suspicion." ”
This morning, the Namdaemun Police Station in Seoul held a press conference and said: "In accordance with the Law on the Handling of Special Cases of Traffic Accidents, A will be investigated for the crime of death caused by professional negligence. ”
The recent spate of accidents involving elderly motorists has raised the alarm that there is a need to develop safety measures for elderly drivers.
According to the Korea Road Transport Agency, 39,614 traffic accidents involving perpetrators aged 65 and over reached 39,614 last year, showing an increase for the third consecutive year and the highest number on record, accounting for 20.0% of all traffic accidents.
In February this year, a 79-year-old driver driving an SUV was involved in a nine-fold rear-end collision on the road near Yeonsinnae Station in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul, resulting in the death of a man in his 70s and the injury of 13 others; In March this year, near the intersection of the Kowloon Tunnel on Yangjae-daero in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, a driver in his 80s accidentally drove in a seven-fold series of rear-end accidents; In April this year, a driver in his 90s hit four elderly people while reversing in the parking lot of the Bangyo Elderly Comprehensive Welfare Center in Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do, killing one of them.
At present, the Korean government has set a three-year driver's license renewal cycle for elderly drivers over the age of 75, and they are required to receive cognitive ability tests and traffic safety education when renewing their driver's licenses, and elderly drivers over the age of 65 are also recommended for traffic safety education.
In addition, local governments in Korea have also introduced incentives to guide elderly drivers to automatically return their driver's licenses, and elderly drivers can receive cash rewards of 100,000 to 300,000 won if they automatically return their driver's licenses, but the driver's license return rate for elderly drivers over 65 years old is only about 2% per year.
Experts say that as the number of elderly people increases, the number of accidents related to elderly drivers will also increase, and it is better to judge individuals based on their cognitive and physical abilities than on age: "If there are restrictions on drivers over 65 years old, the average driver in Korea will be restricted within 10 years", "65 years old is a young man, very young, and in developed countries, drivers over 75 years old are defined as elderly drivers."
What do you think?