Rising Unlicensed Driving Among Youth Using 'Carsharing'
Professional Brokers Appear... Open Advertising on SNS
598 Youth Rental Car Unlicensed Accidents in 5 Years
37.2% of Total Accidents... Annual Average Increase of 14.2%
[Asia Economy Reporter Song Seung-yoon, Intern Reporter Lee Joon-hyung] On the day of Chuseok, the 1st of last month, an incident occurred in Hwasun-gun, Jeollanam-do, where a high school student driving a rental car without a license hit and killed a woman in her 20s who was crossing a crosswalk. At the time, four high school students, including the driver, A (18), were in the car. After causing the accident, they fled about 20 km to Gwangju without providing any aid and later surrendered to the police.
A and the others were able to rent the car using someone else's account through a car-sharing service application (app). A broker was also involved in this process. A man in his 30s, the account holder, handed over the app account to a broker he met through an online community for 30,000 won, and this broker then gave the account to the high school students for 180,000 won under the pretext of rental fees. In September of this year, in Mokpo, Jeollanam-do, high school student A (17) rented a car using a stolen driver's license and caused an accident, resulting in the deaths of two students in the rental car and one occupant of the other vehicle, totaling three fatalities.
According to the Korea Road Traffic Authority on the 4th, from 2015 to 2019, there were 598 cases of unlicensed rental car traffic accidents involving teenagers over the past five years. Considering that the total number of unlicensed rental car traffic accidents during this period was 1,605, 37.2% of these accidents were caused by teenagers. Although the problem of illegal rentals by teenagers has existed in the past, recently the methods have become more sophisticated, and the issue shows little sign of being eradicated. In the past, teenagers would directly rent vehicles from companies by using someone else's ID, but now the main method involves using car-sharing apps. Brokers who buy car-sharing service accounts and resell them to teenagers are also thriving.
These illegal rental operators mainly operate through social networking services (SNS) or messengers like Telegram. Advertisements related to illegal rentals can often be found in KakaoTalk open chat rooms. Unlike chat rooms related to pornography or drugs that are immediately blocked, these rooms operate without much intervention. When a reporter approached an operator pretending to be a customer, the operator asked the desired rental area and then explained that the car would be rented out at about twice the original rental price. When asked if it was okay since the renter was a minor without a license, the operator said, "That doesn't matter at all," and that only repair costs would need to be covered in case of an accident. He explained that once the money was deposited, the car would be handed over either by remote control or by giving a phone with the app installed.
Car-sharing service companies are not unaware of this situation. However, it is generally agreed that it is practically difficult to completely block illegal users. A representative from the car-sharing company Socar said, "Due to the nature of the service, there is no way to prevent brokers from handing over smartphones to others."
Given this situation, the government has also taken steps to prepare countermeasures. On the 15th of last month, the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport announced a legislative notice for the amendment of the 'Passenger Transport Service Act Enforcement Decree.' The amendment includes a new penalty clause that allows punishment for both those who lend rental car accounts and those who borrow them. Violations may result in imprisonment for up to one year or a fine of up to 10 million won. The fine for businesses that rent out cars without verifying licenses will also be increased tenfold from the current 200,000 to 300,000 won range. The amendment to the enforcement decree is expected to be revised and promulgated in January next year after regulatory review and legal inspection procedures.
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