Last Wednesday, we shared with you a video of an accident that took place in South Korea a couple of days earlier and which concerned a latest generation 2009 Hyundai Sonata YF sedan that allegedly took off by itself due to a sticky accelerator pedal plowing into another car at high speed.
The story has since been picked up by mainstream media in Korea and across the world, including CNN, ABC and even the Wall Street Journal.
In Korea, the video of the accident sparked a government-led investigation whilst Hyundai itself, while refusing interviews to talk about the incident issued a brief statement saying, “The vehicle is being investigated by the Korean National Forensic Service. There is no time estimate for the conclusion of the investigation.”
As it turns out, a 65-year old man was driving the Sonata with his 63-year old wife seated on the passenger side. Both suffered non-life threatening injuries, with the man taken to the hospital with fractured ribs and a broken finger while the woman needed an operation for internal bleeding and is now waiting a second operation on her back.
The video was published online by the couple’s son, who told the media that he wants to be identified only by his surname, Kwon.
Speaking to CNN, Kwon said: “My father said he heard an odd noise from the car. He thought there was something wrong, and then felt the vehicle suddenly accelerating. He twisted the car wheel to the left as he was trying to avoid the cars in front of him, and that is when the vehicle accelerated at a crazy speed. He continued to avoid traffic and people but in the end, there was nowhere else to dodge, and he crashed into a car.”
Sohn Young-sam, an official at the South Korea’s land ministry, told WSJ that the government-run Korea Automobile Testing & Research Institute is investigating 80 cases of unintended acceleration from 2003 to 2011. However, the newspaper noted that close to 1,000 complaints for sudden acceleration cases have been filed with the Korea Consumer Agency since 2006.
VIDEO