The driver, identified only as A, leaves the Pyeongtaek Police Station detention facility Monday, wearing a hat and mask with his head bowed. He is accused of plowing a one-ton truck into a crowd at a community market in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, killing two people and injuring five. [Yonhap]
The driver, identified only as A, leaves the Pyeongtaek Police Station detention facility Monday, wearing a hat and mask with his head bowed. He is accused of plowing a one-ton truck into a crowd at a community market in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, killing two people and injuring five. [Yonhap]

A driver who plowed a city-owned truck into a crowd at a community market in Anseong, Gyeonggi Province, on Saturday, killing a mother and her son and injuring five others, has admitted fault after initially claiming the vehicle suddenly accelerated on its own.

Judge Kim Dae-hyeon of the Pyeongtaek Branch of Suwon District Court issued an arrest warrant for the driver, identified only as A, on Monday following a pre-arrest hearing on charges of causing death and injury under the Act on Special Cases Concerning Traffic Accidents. "The suspect has confessed to the offense, and the criminal charges have been substantiated by objective evidence," the judge said. "Given that there are multiple victims — including two who died, a mother and son — the charges are serious, and there is reason to believe the suspect may flee."

As he left the Pyeongtaek Police Station detention facility Monday morning, A told reporters, "I am sorry. I have nothing to say. I have committed a crime worthy of death."

A is accused of suddenly driving a recycling collection vehicle into a crowd at 11:18 a.m. Saturday at Gongdo 10-ho Children's Park in Gongdo-eup, Anseong, leaving seven people dead or injured.

A is a contract employee who drove a recycling collection vehicle for Anseong city's resource circulation division. He is believed to have caused the accident while attempting to park inside the park — where the community market was being held — to promote recycling collection activities.

A teenage boy and his mother, a woman in her 40s, were killed in the crash. Five others were injured, including a woman in her 20s who suffered fractures in both legs.

Immediately after the accident, A told police he had been trying to park near the park to load and unload goods and had confused the brake pedal with the accelerator. He later changed his account during subsequent questioning, saying the accident occurred as he was driving into the park to park for promotional purposes and that the vehicle had suddenly accelerated on its own.

Before the pre-arrest hearing Monday morning, however, A reversed course again, telling police he believed he had mistakenly pressed the accelerator instead of the brake.

Police are analyzing footage from closed-circuit television cameras at the scene and the vehicle's black box dashcam.


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