Police investigating a crash in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, that killed three university students are focusing on the likelihood that the driver lost control while speeding on a wet road.
The Changwon Jungbu Police Station said Saturday that analysis of the vehicle's event data recorder showed it was traveling at 161 kilometers per hour 3.5 seconds before the collision on Jungang-daero.
The speed limit on Jungang-daero in Sinwol-dong, Seongsan-gu — where the crash occurred — is 60 km/h, meaning the vehicle was moving at well over twice the legal limit when it struck a parked bus.
Investigators also found evidence that the driver attempted to steer and brake just before impact, leading police to lean toward the likelihood that the vehicle lost control while speeding in the rain.
However, determining exactly how the car reached 161 km/h on a wet road has become difficult, as all three occupants died in the crash.
Police sought to test the blood of the three victims for alcohol and other substances by sending samples to the National Forensic Service, but prosecutors declined to seek a search and seizure warrant on the grounds that the case had no one to prosecute, leaving the toxicology work undone.
Investigators are currently interviewing people who knew the occupants, as well as the bus driver, to piece together the circumstances before and after the crash.
The accident occurred around 5 a.m. Tuesday, when a sedan heading toward the South Gyeongsang Provincial Government building on Jungang-daero in Sinwol-dong, Seongsan-gu, struck a parked bus, killing the driver — identified only as Mr. A, a man in his 20s — and his two passengers.
The three victims were classmates in the same department at the same university. Mr. A was reportedly driving a vehicle borrowed from his parents. The sedan was traveling in the third lane of a five-lane one-way road when it struck the bus, which was parked in the fifth lane.
The bus had been parked straddling a double yellow line — marking a no-parking zone — during hours when parking is prohibited. However, police said they do not currently consider the bus's position to be a direct cause of the crash.
betterj@heraldcorp.com
