‘SUDDEN ACCELERATION CASE’ INVESTIGATED

[Anchor Lead]

An elderly woman in her 60s was questioned by the police for an alleged case of sudden unintended vehicle acceleration which took away the life of her 12 year old grandson. The woman who also sustained serious injuries said her brake did not function at all at the time. Her family and lawyer insisted that the National Forensic Service initially failed to properly look into software defects, and that she was being 'framed' to have caused the accident.

[Pkg]

Last December, an alleged case of sudden unintended vehicle acceleration occurred in Gangneung, Gangwon-do Province. Due to the accident, the driver sustained serious injuries and her 12-year-old grandson in the back seat lost his life. Three months after the accident, the elderly woman got booked on charges of involuntary manslaughter and appeared for police questioning. The driver told the police that the brakes had not functioned at all during the unexpected acceleration of her vehicle. She also said that she had tried to stop the car by shifting into neutral, to no avail.

[Soundbite] Ha Jong-sun(Driver’s lawyer) : "She tried to shift into neutral. But it didn’t work. She panicked and the car even sped up further."

Her lawyer insisted that the police investigation was faulty, as the National Forensic Service had failed to properly look into software defects in the vehicle's electronic controller unit. The driver's son pleaded that he cannot stand watching his mother become a criminal after also losing his son in the accident.

[Soundbite] (Father of the late Lee Do-hyun) : "We are confident that my mother is innocent. I hope that after questioning, mother will feel less guilty, although it is a burden she may carry for life."

The driver's family submitted to police a petition signed by some 7,000 people appealing for her innocence. The Gangwon-do Provincial Assembly and the Gangneung City Council also approved recommendations calling for the automaker in question to prove whether or not the accident was a case of sudden unintended acceleration. The police will soon send the case to the prosecution, after conducting more investigation based on the questioning and a report from the National Forensic Service.