22% of Unlicensed Rental Car Accidents Involve Teenagers
Easy Access to Forged IDs Fuels Illegal Rentals
Accidents involving unlicensed teenagers driving rental cars continue to occur. There are growing concerns that forged identification cards, which can be easily created online, are providing a pathway for teenagers to illegally rent vehicles.
According to the National Police Agency on June 13, teenagers accounted for 22% (44 cases) of the 198 unlicensed rental car traffic accidents reported last year. This means that one out of every five such accidents involved a teenager. A police official stated, "Accidents caused by teenagers driving rental cars without a license are consistently occurring," and added, "There have even been fatal accidents involving teenagers behind the wheel, so heightened awareness is necessary."
In February this year, a car driven onto a sidewalk in Jung-gu, Daegu, seriously injured a pedestrian in their 70s; the driver was a teenager. The vehicle was a rental car. A month earlier in Daejeon, another unlicensed teenager drove a rental car and engaged in a dangerous chase with the police, repeatedly crossing the center line. In July last year in Bucheon, Gyeonggi Province, an unlicensed teenage driver crashed a rental car into an apartment exterior wall, causing the vehicle to overturn and injuring four teenagers inside the car.
The police believe that in some cases, teenagers used forged identification cards to rent vehicles, which then led to accidents. A police official said, "There are not a few cases where unlicensed teenagers rent vehicles using forged identification cards, resulting in accidents."
It is not difficult for teenagers to create forged identification cards online. On X (formerly Twitter), searching for keywords such as 'identification card' or 'driver's license' using hashtags revealed numerous hashtags related to document forgery, including #신분증위조 and #운전면허증제작. When the reporter inquired with one vendor about producing a driver's license, the vendor replied, "After production is complete, I will show you the actual card via video call," and added, "Direct transactions are also possible." The quoted price was 450,000 won.
The problem is that these forged identification cards can be misused to rent cars. This is often done through brokers who rent vehicles without verifying the authenticity of the driver's license. Brokers profit by renting vehicles obtained from rental car companies to third parties. In this process, teenagers can easily rent vehicles using forged identification cards. A broker contacted by the reporter said, "Minors are at a higher risk of accidents, so I can't rent to them," but added, "As long as you have a driver's license, it doesn't matter if you're a beginner. However, in the event of an accident, you must pay the full amount of damages."
According to the Road Traffic Act, driving a vehicle without a license is punishable by up to one year in prison or a fine of up to 3 million won. However, teenagers who drive without a license are usually subject to rehabilitative measures under the Juvenile Act rather than criminal penalties. Therefore, there are calls for measures to eradicate the distribution of forged identification cards, which is the root cause leading teenagers to drive without a license.
Choi Hangseob, a professor of sociology at Kookmin University, said, "Platforms need to implement voluntary regulatory systems, such as actively filtering search terms or images related to forged identification cards," and added, "If these measures are not effective, the police should step in and actively crack down on the production and sale of forged identification cards."
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