Driver sentenced to five years in prison for fatal crash in central Seoul

SEOUL, December 4 (AJP) - A driver involved in a fatal crash in central Seoul last year was sentenced to five years in prison, as the Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the lower court's ruling.

The man in his late 60s, identified by his last name Cha, was charged with violating traffic laws after crashing into pedestrians near City Hall in July 2024, killing nine people and injuring five others.

Investigations revealed that he had mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake while driving in the wrong direction on a one-way, four-lane street, hitting pedestrians and oncoming vehicles.

The initial court sentenced him to seven and a half years in prison, counting each death and injury as a separate crime. The appellate court, however, ruled that the crimes resulted from a single incident and reduced the sentence to five years.

* This article, published by Aju Business Daily, was translated by AI and edited by AJP.

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