Operators who engaged in lending electric bikes to unlicensed minors ages 13 to 16 have been brought to trial on charges of occupational negligence resulting in injury.
The Criminal Division 1 of the Daegu District Prosecutors' Office Seobu Branch (Director General Kim Sang-mun) said on the 16th it indicted without detention three rental operators on charges of occupational negligence resulting in injury for lending electric bikes to unlicensed minors.
According to prosecutors, while operating a PM lending company around Gangjeongbo in Dalseong County, they allegedly lent electric bikes to unlicensed minors without license verification and safety training procedures from Oct. 2020 to Oct. 2025, leading to traffic accidents.
As a result of the prosecution's investigation, in Oct. 2020, A, a boy (then 13), who borrowed an electric bike at this location, struck a 6-year-old girl while riding, causing a skull fracture that required six weeks of treatment.
All those who borrowed electric bikes were minors ages 13 to 16, and none had licenses. Prosecutors said most of them were sent to juvenile protection proceedings.
Prosecutors recognized and launched an investigation into the fact that some of the personal mobility (PM) lending companies thriving around Gangjeongbo, a recreation area along the Nakdong River, had been punished multiple times for aiding and abetting unlicensed driving but, due to light penalties, continued lending electric bikes to unlicensed minors. Under the Road Traffic Act, the maximum statutory penalty for unlicensed PM driving is a fine of up to 300,000 won, but the maximum penalty for a lending operator who abets it is a fine of 150,000 won.
The Daegu District Prosecutors' Office Seobu Branch said, "Although PMs, a new type of transportation, have been widely distributed recently, traffic accidents and illegal acts are recurring due to inadequate regulation," and added, "We will respond strictly to unlicensed PM driving and related traffic accident cases that threaten public safety."