Resident Fatally Falls From 15th Floor of Parking Tower With Passenger Still Asleep Inside

▲ Mechanical parking lot

Regarding an accident where a resident who fell to their death after a vehicle was loaded into a mechanical parking tower without noticing them sleeping in the back seat, the apartment building's management office director and the resident who parked the vehicle have been finalized as guilty for failing to fulfill their duty of care.

According to the legal community on the 7th, the Supreme Court's Second Division (Presiding Justice Kwon Young-jun) recently finalized the lower court rulings that sentenced the building's management director and resident A, who were indicted on charges of professional negligence resulting in death, to 10 million won in fines and 5 million won in fines, respectively.

The incident stemmed from January 2023 when a resident inside a car at a mechanical parking lot in Busan fell and died.

On the day of the accident, a designated driver parked the victim's vehicle on the elevator platform of the mechanical parking lot, left the victim in the back seat, and departed. The victim fell asleep as they were.

Neighboring resident A, who arrived shortly afterward, checked inside the car but failed to notice anyone.

Resident A informed the security guard that "there is no one in the car, so I will raise it" and pressed the "store" button to raise the vehicle. The security guard allowed this without checking the site separately.

The vehicle was parked at a height corresponding to the 15th floor, and the victim, waking up from sleep, opened the door to get out and fell to their death.

Due to this accident, the security guard, the management director responsible for managing and supervising the security guard, and resident A who parked the vehicle were sent to trial.

The issue was whether professional negligence could be recognized for them.

The first instance sentenced the management director and the security guard each to 10 months in prison with a 2-year suspension, and resident A to a fine of 10 million won.

The first trial court noted that the management director had a duty to manage and supervise by having the security guard receive mechanical parking lot manager training or by monitoring the parking lot operation and safety status via closed-circuit (CCTV) cameras during night shifts, judging that there was negligence in failing to fulfill the duty of care in safety management.

The security guard was also judged guilty, considering that as someone who had regularly handled tasks related to the mechanical parking lot, operating the vehicle entry constituted work.

Regarding resident A who parked the vehicle, the court explained, "Failing to check if there was someone inside by opening the vehicle door or contacting the car owner, and only looking at the exterior, was negligence violating the general duty of care."

The security guard did not appeal, so the first-instance verdict was finalized as is, while the management director and resident A appealed.

While maintaining this judgment, the second instance deemed the first-instance sentences against the management director and A to be heavy.

The second-instance court stated, "It is difficult to view the degree of the defendants' violation of the duty of care as severe, and the victim also appears to have some responsibility for the occurrence of the accident."

It then sentenced the management director to a fine of 10 million won and resident A to a fine of 5 million won, adding that "in the case of A, circumstances show efforts were made to fulfill the duty of care in their own way."

The two appealed, but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, ruling that there were no errors such as misinterpretation of legal principles in the lower court's judgment recognizing their professional negligence.

(Photo: Yonhap News)

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