An on-duty police officer who ran over a woman in her 60s lying on the road with a patrol car, causing her death, is under police investigation.
According to police and Yonhap News on the 3rd, the Incheon Michuhol Police Station booked and is questioning A, a police constable in her 20s from a precinct, on suspicion of causing death under the Act on Special Cases Concerning the Settlement of Traffic Accidents.
At about 12:45 a.m. the same day, Constable A was driving a patrol car on an alley road in Sungui-dong, Michuhol District, Incheon, when A is suspected of running over Ms. B, a woman in her 60s who was lying on the road, causing her death.
At the time of the accident, Constable A had been dispatched to the scene with Sergeant C from the same precinct after receiving a report that "a person has collapsed on the road." However, it was found that during the approach to the scene, B, the person to be rescued, was not detected in time, leading to the accident.
B was taken by a 119 ambulance crew to a nearby hospital immediately afterward but died. Medical staff at the hospital told the bereaved family that the cause of death was presumed to be cardiac arrest due to multiple fractures.
According to police, the accident site was a relatively dark alley road and at a point adjoining a left-turn section. During questioning, Constable A reportedly said in substance, "I did not properly see that B was lying down."
Considering that the suspect is an on-duty officer at the Michuhol station, police plan to assign the investigation to a neighboring station to ensure fairness. A police official said, "We plan to determine whether to seek an arrest warrant after verifying the specific circumstances of the accident through analysis of nearby CCTV (closed-circuit television)."