An appellate trial on compensation for the 2022 crash that killed a 12-year-old child began Thursday at the Chuncheon branch of the Seoul High Court, with the families of both the driver and the victim claiming the crash was caused by a mechanical error in the vehicle.
The family of the victim, Lee Do-hyeon, is seeking 920 million won ($630,000) in damages from KG Mobility — formerly SsangYong Motor Co. — for what they claim was sudden unintended acceleration of the car driven by Lee’s grandmother. She was not criminally charged due to a lack of evidence of violations under the Special Act on Traffic Accidents.
In a civil lawsuit filed by the Lee family, the lower court ruled in favor of the carmaker, finding it more likely that the driver mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake.
The focal point of the case is whether the car suddenly accelerated due to an error in its electronic control unit. An analysis of the vehicle by the National Forensic Service did not find any mechanical defects, which KG Mobility said supports its claim that the driver confused the pedals.
But the Lee family argues that it would have been impossible for the driver to continue pressing the accelerator for the full 30 seconds during which the vehicle allegedly accelerated out of control.
The two sides also dispute the operation of the car’s autonomous emergency braking system, which activates when the vehicle detects a potential forward collision. The family said the AEB system’s failure to activate despite seven forward-collision warnings indicates a defect.
However, the company said the AEB function is automatically disabled when accelerator pedal displacement reaches at least 60 percent. The vehicle’s event data recorder showed the pedal displacement level was at 100 percent at the time of the crash.
The company also said surveillance footage showed no brake lights activating, suggesting the driver did not press the brake pedal as she claimed.
The Lee family requested that the NFS analyst who examined the vehicle testify in court and called for an additional assessment of the accident reenactment. They argued that the vehicle accelerated more slowly during the actual crash than in the reenactment, which they say indicates the driver attempted to slow the car.
Lee Sang-hun, the father of the deceased child, said the trial could set an important precedent by requiring carmakers to prove the absence of defects in sudden acceleration cases rather than placing the burden on consumers.
“It is realistically impossible for ordinary consumers, who lack the technology and financial means, to prove technical defects,” he said.
A proposed legal revision that would require carmakers to verify defects in suspected sudden unintended acceleration cases is currently pending at the National Assembly.
minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com
