Samsung Fire research finds drivers 60 and older account for 70% of 567 cases
Traffic accidents caused by drivers pressing the wrong pedal have more than doubled over the past five years, while fatalities have surged more than threefold, a new study shows. With drivers aged 60 and older accounting for more than 70 percent of all cases, experts warn that the toll will keep rising as South Korea's population continues aging.
Samsung Fire's Traffic Safety and Culture Research Institute released its analysis of wrong-pedal accident characteristics Thursday, drawing on 567 suspected wrong-pedal crashes reported in the media from January 2021 through December 2025.
Wrong-pedal accidents rose from 66 cases in 2021 to 153 in 2025 — a 2.3-fold increase — with an average annual growth rate of 23.4 percent. Over the same period, fatalities jumped 3.4-fold, from 15 to 51, averaging 4.3 deaths per month.
Drivers aged 60 and older were involved in 400 of the 567 cases, or 70.5 percent of the total — roughly three times the frequency of drivers under 60, who were involved in 136 cases. Older drivers also averaged more casualties per incident: 2.8 victims, compared with 2.1 for younger drivers, a difference of 33 percent. Over the five-year period, accidents involving drivers 60 and older resulted in 1,115 casualties, accounting for 77 percent of the total.
By location, vehicles plowing into restaurants, cafes and other commercial establishments accounted for the largest share, at 96 cases, or 40.3 percent. Sidewalks and crosswalks — where pedestrian fatality rates are high — recorded a death rate of 48.2 percent. Commercial-area crashes typically occurred at low speeds during parking or reversing maneuvers, while incidents on pedestrian paths and back streets are believed to have involved drivers panicking and continuing to press the accelerator, causing vehicles to gain speed.
International experience offers a cautionary note. Japan has equipped more than 93 percent of new vehicles with wrong-pedal prevention systems, yet the number of elderly driver fatalities actually rose, from 60 in 2015 to 74 in 2024. Most current systems activate only at speeds below 15 kilometers per hour, rendering them ineffective while a vehicle is in motion.
Britain's Transport Research Laboratory has classified wrong-pedal errors not as simple driver incompetence but as cognitive mistakes, and has proposed systemic countermeasures including pedal indicator lights and brake-toggling mechanisms.
psj@heraldcorp.com
