Police Refer 70s Taxi Driver in Jonggak Station Crash to Prosecution Without Detention

Referred to the prosecution on the 11th

Last month, a taxi driver in his seventies who caused 14 casualties near Jonggak Station in Jongno-gu, Seoul, was handed over to the prosecution.

The Jongno Police Station in Seoul announced on the 24th that on the 11th it had referred without detention a taxi driver in his seventies, identified as A, to the prosecution on charges including causing death and injury under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents.

Taxi accident at Jonggak Station that occurred on the 2nd of last month. Yonhap News

A is suspected of causing a multi-vehicle collision at around 6:07 p.m. on the 2nd of last month near Jonggak Station, in which 1 person was killed and 13 others were injured while he was driving a taxi. The taxi driven by A suddenly accelerated, struck a crosswalk, pedestrians, and a utility pole, then turned to the left and successively crashed into two passenger cars that were waiting at a traffic signal.

A tested positive for morphine in a preliminary reagent test at the time of the accident. However, a detailed analysis requested by the police from the National Forensic Service returned a negative result. The police explained that they believe A had caught a cold and had been taking cold medicine for several days before the accident, and that he caused the crash while driving in a state of overwork.