Gwangju Seobu Police Station [Yonhap]
Gwangju Seobu Police Station [Yonhap]

A 14-year-old middle school student in Gwangju drove a car without a license late at night out of curiosity and caused a crash that ultimately killed a fellow passenger, police said Monday. Investigators upgraded the charges against the boy to vehicular manslaughter.

Gwangju Seobu Police Station said Monday it had booked the student, identified only as A, on charges including causing death through unlicensed driving under the Special Act on the Processing of Traffic Accidents, and that an investigation is underway.

A is accused of striking a road curb with force while driving a light passenger vehicle near Gwangcheon Intersection in Seo-gu, Gwangju, at around 1:10 a.m. on June 9.

Five middle school students, including A, were in the vehicle at the time. Four passengers sustained injuries of varying severity. A female student in the front passenger seat suffered serious head injuries and was rushed to a hospital. She died Monday — six days after the crash — despite intensive treatment.

The investigation found the accident stemmed from a reckless teenage impulse. A obtained the car keys belonging to the parents of the girl in the front passenger seat and got behind the wheel out of curiosity, only to lose control of the vehicle due to inexperience.

Following the passenger's death, police upgraded A's charge from causing bodily injury to causing death under the Special Act on the Processing of Traffic Accidents. Investigators plan to question A and the surviving passengers further to establish the precise sequence of events and how the group came to be in the vehicle.


hwshin@heraldcorp.com