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A designated driver who accidentally stepped on the accelerator pedal of a Tesla vehicle, killing the owner in the passenger seat, had his original sentence upheld in the second trial.
On the 23rd, the Seoul Western District Court Criminal Division 1 (Presiding Judge Ban Jeong-woo) dismissed both the prosecutor's and the defendant's appeals in the appellate trial for Mr. Choi (65), a designated driver indicted on charges of violating the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents (causing death), thereby upholding the original sentence of 1 year in prison.
Imprisonment (Geumgo) is a punishment that confines the convict to a correctional facility, but unlike imprisonment (Jingyeok), forced labor is not imposed.
The defendant appealed, claiming the original sentence was too severe, while the prosecutor appealed, claiming it was too light. However, the court explained the reason for dismissal by stating, "The sentencing in the first trial was carried out within a reasonable range."
The court determined that the accident occurred because the defendant stepped on the accelerator pedal, citing the operating data showing that the accelerator pedal displacement (a record converting the degree of acceleration into a percentage) gradually increased from 29.6% to 100% at the time of the accident, and there was no record of the brake pedal being pressed.
Mr. Choi was indicted without detention on charges of driving a Tesla Model X Long Range in the underground parking lot of an apartment in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, in December 2020, and colliding with a parking lot wall, killing Mr. Yoon, a lawyer for a large law firm who was the owner of the car and was in the passenger seat.
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