Head of Suwon Food Mart Forwarded to Prosecutors Over Fatal Vehicle Plunge Due to Illegal Alteration of Rooftop Parking Lot

Police have decided to forward the head of a food mart in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, to prosecutors after it was revealed that the rooftop parking lot—where a woman in her 20s died after her vehicle plunged 12 meters—was created by illegally modifying an originally approved landscaping area.

The Suwon Gwonseon Police Station announced that it plans to forward the head of the food mart, a man in his 50s identified as A, to the Suwon District Prosecutors Office on charges of violating the Building Act (illegal change of use).

A is suspected of converting a portion of the rooftop space, which had been approved by the city as a landscaping facility when the building was completed in 2019, into a parking lot without going through the proper procedures for changing its use.

In 2024, A removed the landscaping facilities on the rooftop and painted parking lines on the floor, transforming the space into parking facilities.

However, investigations showed that anticipating issues regarding the illegal change of use, A did not actually use it as a parking space, instead controlling access to the area by placing traffic cones.

Previously, at around 6:27 p.m. on August 12, an accident occurred on this rooftop in which a Seltos vehicle driven by a woman in her 20s broke through the outer wall and plummeted 12 meters below.

The female driver was killed in the accident.

It was reported that the driver suffered the fatal accident while practicing driving with her mother.

Police determined that while there is no direct causal link between the mart head's Building Act violation and the fatal accident, the act of arbitrarily removing the landscaping facility approved for building use and altering the structure itself is punishable by law.

A police official stated, "Regardless of the responsibility for the accident, we concluded that the act of arbitrarily altering the approved facility is unlawful, and thus booked the head of the mart, who is the management entity."

(Photo: Provided by Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency, Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.