Sentence Reduced from 7 Years and 6 Months to 5 Years in Appellate Court
Supreme Court to Decide on "Ideal Concurrence of Offenses" in City Hall Station Wrong-Way Accident
The wrong-way driving accident at City Hall Station in central Seoul last July, which resulted in nine deaths and five injuries, has now been brought before the Supreme Court.
The driver Cha Mo of the vehicle involved in the reverse driving accident at Seoul City Hall Station, which resulted in nine deaths, is entering the Seoul Central District Court in Seocho-gu on the morning of the 30th to undergo a pre-arrest detention hearing. Photo by Yonhap News
According to the legal community on August 16, prosecutors filed an appeal on August 14 with the Seoul Central District Court's Criminal Appellate Division 5-1 (Presiding Judges: So Byungjin, Kim Yongjung, Kim Jiseon), which had handled the case of Cha Mo (age 69), who was indicted for violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents.
On August 8, the appellate court overturned the original sentence of seven years and six months in prison and instead sentenced Cha to five years in prison. A prison sentence (geumgo) in Korea means the offender is incarcerated but is not required to perform compulsory labor, unlike a standard prison sentence (jingyeok).
In the first trial, the court viewed each victim's accident as a separate criminal act, determining that the case constituted a real concurrence of offenses. Accordingly, the court imposed the statutory maximum sentence of seven years and six months in prison (five years for the most serious offense, increased by one-half).
However, the appellate court found that Cha's actions constituted an "ideal concurrence of offenses," meaning multiple crimes arising from a single act.
Real concurrence refers to a situation where one person commits multiple crimes through multiple acts. In such cases, the sentence for the most serious crime can be increased by up to one-half.
In contrast, ideal concurrence refers to a single act that constitutes multiple crimes. In this case, the offender is punished according to the sentence for the most serious crime, so the maximum sentence is five years in prison.
The appellate court stated, "The main cause of the accident was the defendant's negligence in pressing the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal, which means the legal elements are singular. The different outcomes for each victim were merely the result of the same act. Therefore, it is appropriate to view each crime as being in an ideal concurrence relationship."
As a result, the Supreme Court is expected to make a final determination on whether Cha's case constitutes ideal concurrence of offenses.
On July 1 of last year, at approximately 9:26 p.m., Cha drove his car out of the underground parking lot of the Westin Chosun Hotel near City Hall Station in Jung-gu, Seoul. He then drove the wrong way onto the sidewalk, striking two vehicles and hitting pedestrians.
The accident resulted in nine deaths and five injuries.
From the investigation stage, Cha claimed that the accident was caused by sudden unintended acceleration. However, prosecutors concluded that the accident was not due to a vehicle defect but was instead caused by Cha's mistaken pressing of the accelerator pedal, and indicted him in custody in August of last year.
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