"They're Running Away?" Wrong-Way Crash Followed by Fleeing... Surge in Cases Involving Foreign Drivers

[Anchor]

Last year, traffic accidents caused by foreign drivers in South Korea reached nearly 3,900. This is almost double the figure from 10 years ago. Unlicensed driving and even the use of forged licenses are increasingly being caught.

Reporter Cho Min-ki has the details.

[Reporter]

A road in Aewol-eup, Jeju City.

A gray passenger car drives in the wrong direction at high speed, crosses the centerline to crash into a white passenger car in the first lane, and then flees the scene.

[Victim: There's been an accident. But that car is running away now, so I'm chasing it.]

The offending driver was a man in his 20s from Sudan who was driving without a license.

With the growing number of foreigners residing in South Korea, traffic accidents and deaths caused by foreigners have nearly doubled over the past decade.

In particular, last year saw a sharp surge, with the number of accidents jumping by about 45% and deaths by roughly 84% compared to the previous year. This is analyzed to be partly driven by a 66% increase in drunk driving accidents involving foreigners.

Amidst 500 to 600 reports of unlicensed driving accidents by foreigners every year, there are even cases of individuals being caught attempting to drive in South Korea using forged licenses from their home countries.

Holders of foreign driver's licenses can exchange them for South Korean licenses by passing simple procedures such as a physical examination, leading some to submit fake licenses.

Shown here are the back of a forged license of a Myanmar national who attempted to exchange it for a domestic license, alongside a real license belonging to someone else.

Let's scan the QR codes at the bottom of each to verify their authenticity.

Both licenses direct users to an identity verification website, but a closer look reveals that the website URLs are different, and an AI mark appears below the photo on the forged license.

[Kwon Young-jin / Member, National Assembly Committee on Public Administration and Security (People Power Party): As the forgery and alteration of foreign licenses, such as fake QR codes and document tampering, become increasingly sophisticated, I believe it is urgent to devise fundamental measures to strengthen verification cooperation between countries.]

There is an urgent need to improve systems such as traffic safety education and license management for the steadily growing population of foreign residents in the country.

(Video by Kim Seung-tae | Video Editing by Lee So-young | Graphics by Lim Chan-hyuk | Data provided by the office of Representative Kwon Young-jin of the People Power Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.