"Accident Interval 5 Seconds, Response Time 1 Second"
Judged Difficult to Avoid the Accident
A driver who hit a pedestrian lying on the road after being struck by a vehicle while jaywalking at night, causing the pedestrian's death, was acquitted by the court, stating that "there was only about one second to respond."
On the 22nd, Yonhap News reported, "Judge Park Kang-gyun of the Criminal Division 4 at the Seoul Central District Court acquitted A, a man in his 40s, who was charged with violating the Special Act on Traffic Accident Handling (causing death)." The accident occurred around 9 p.m. on August 27 last year on a curved road with three lanes one way on the right side toward the Changdeokgung intersection in front of the Jongno Fire Station in Jongno-gu, Seoul. At that time, B, a man in his 60s, attempted to jaywalk from the sidewalk on the Jongno Fire Station side where there was no crosswalk to the opposite side and was hit by a passenger car driven by C, a man in his 40s, in the second lane. Due to the impact, B fell onto the first lane and was then struck by a passenger car driven by A, who was driving in the first lane. B was immediately transported to the hospital but died within an hour of the accident. The police charged A with causing B's death due to negligence in paying attention to the front.
However, the court analyzed the black boxes of the two vehicles involved in the accidents on a second-by-second basis and found that the time interval between the first and second accidents was only five seconds. B was airborne due to the impact of the first accident, fell to the ground two seconds later, and was hit by the second accident three seconds after that. The court judged that A recognized B's presence only about one second before the second accident, making it difficult to avoid the accident even with sudden braking.
Additionally, A's vehicle black box did not capture the two seconds during which B was airborne and then fell to the ground from the impact of the first accident. B was wearing dark-colored upper and lower clothing and fell in a prone position. Furthermore, since three to four vehicles with headlights on were coming from the opposite lane, the court determined that it was difficult for A to notice B on the road. Although the Korea Road Traffic Authority presented photos reproducing the accident scene using a mannequin experiment as evidence, the court dismissed this, stating, "Drivers rely on dynamic vision, which is worse than static visual acuity, but the photos were likely taken in a stationary state," and "The mannequin was made of materials and colors that reflect light more easily than a person, so it is difficult to exclude the possibility that it was easier to identify than in reality."
The court then sentenced C, who caused the first accident and was also charged, to eight months in prison with a two-year probation period and ordered him to attend 40 hours of safe driving lectures, considering that he had reached a settlement with the bereaved family.
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