[Anchor]

This morning, July 14, a passenger car struck a bus and then plowed onto a sidewalk near Jeongja Station in Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province. A man in his 30s who was walking on the sidewalk died in the accident. The driver has claimed that the vehicle experienced sudden unintended acceleration.

Reporter Kim Gyu-ri has the story.

[Reporter]

A white passenger car is seen having crossed the sidewalk and crashed into a bicycle storage area.

A yellow village bus sits on the road surrounded by police tape, with debris from the damaged vehicle scattered across the scene.

At approximately 6:50 a.m. today, a report was filed stating that a car had struck a pedestrian at a village bus stop near Jeongja Station in Bundang-gu, Seongnam, Gyeonggi Province.

The car hit the rear of a stationary bus before continuing onto the sidewalk.

[Bus Driver: I was dropping off and picking up passengers at the stop. The car suddenly slammed into us with a loud bang. It ended up in that state. I have been driving a bus for a long time, but this is my first time experiencing something like this, so I am quite shaken.]

A man in his 30s who was walking on the sidewalk at the time was struck by the vehicle and transported to a hospital in cardiac arrest, but he ultimately passed away.

Fortunately, there were no passengers on the bus. The driver of the car, a woman in her 50s identified as A, and a teenage girl who was a passenger in the car were also injured, but their injuries are not considered life-threatening.

Police stated that A was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time of the incident.

It is reported that A told the police, "The vehicle suddenly accelerated on its own at the time of the accident."

The police have booked A on charges of causing death under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents and are investigating the exact circumstances of the accident based on the vehicle's dashcam footage and nearby CCTV recordings.

(Video reporting: Yang Ji-hoon | Video editing: Choi Jin-hwa | Footage courtesy of Gyeonggi-do Fire and Disaster Headquarters)