'Sicheong Station Reverse Driving' Accident Vehicle Insurance History Shows... 6 Accidents in the Last 6 Years

Korea Insurance Development Institute's 'Car History' Accident Record Inquiry Results
Car Owner is Passenger Wife...Couple Jointly Drive

The Genesis G80 vehicle involved in the wrong-way driving accident near Seoul City Hall Station has been confirmed to have been involved in at least six accidents over the past six years.

On the 5th, Yonhap News reported that a search of the accident history of the vehicle on the 'Car History' site operated by the Korea Insurance Development Institute revealed that the vehicle, driven by driver Cha (68) at the time of the accident, had been involved in a total of six accidents from the time the vehicle was registered in 2018 until before this accident. By year, there was one accident each in 2018 and 2019, and two accidents each in 2020 and 2021. Among these, two accidents were handled through the other party's insurance, suggesting that Cha was the victim in those cases, but the other four accidents were all handled through Cha's insurance. The total repair cost estimates for Cha's vehicle during this period amounted to 5,815,418 KRW, and the repair cost estimates for the other party's vehicles borne by Cha were 6,681,847 KRW.

On the morning of the 2nd, at Namdaemun Police Station in Seoul, a police tow truck is transporting a Genesis G80 vehicle that caused an accident the previous evening by rushing onto the sidewalk at an intersection near City Hall Station and hitting pedestrians.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The owner of this vehicle at the time of the accident was Cha's wife, who was a passenger in the vehicle, and it is known that the couple drove this car together. It has not been confirmed which of the couple was driving at the time of the six past accidents.

On the 1st, while driving the Genesis G80 vehicle, Cha exited the underground parking lot of the Westin Chosun Hotel in Jung-gu near Seoul City Hall Station and drove about 200 meters in the wrong direction on a one-way four-lane road, causing an accident. He hit a guardrail and pedestrians on the sidewalk, then collided with two vehicles in succession. This accident resulted in the deaths of nine pedestrians and injuries to seven others.

Cha is known as a 'veteran driver' who obtained a bus license in 1974 and worked as a bus driver for about 40 years. It was confirmed that he was driving a 20-seat city bus as a contract worker at K Passenger in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, until the day before the accident. After the accident, Cha reportedly called an acquaintance and claimed sudden unintended acceleration. Cha, who suffered multiple broken ribs in the accident, was booked on charges of professional negligence causing death and injury under the Special Act on Traffic Accident Handling and was questioned once by the police while hospitalized. In his first investigation, Cha repeatedly claimed sudden unintended acceleration, stating, "I pressed the brake at the time of the accident, but it felt hard." Earlier, Cha's wife, who was questioned as a witness, also testified to the effect that "the brake did not work at the time of the accident."