"To Prevent the City Hall Accident to be Repeated…“ ACRC, Institutions Improvement on "Driver’s License Management"

- ACRC recommends institutional improvement on driver's license management such as preparation of various safety net

- Conditional driver's license restricting the driving area and time, stronger qualification inspection for taxi, bus, and cargo drivers are included

(27, March. 2025, ACRC)

Public anxiety is growing as traffic accidents caused by driver negligence continue, including the "City Call Reverse Driving" which caused 14 casualties in Jul. last year and the "Haeundae Sidewalk Crash"which caused two death in Nov. last year.

Although the driver’s physical and mental health is more important on the cause of the accident than their age, the current driver’s license acquisition and renewal system is based on age, so there are many voices that the management of drivers with significantly reduced physical and cognitive ability should be strengthened regardless of their age.

* Immediately after the accident at City Hall last year, ACRC and the City of Seoul jointly held a public discussion involving academia, experts, and relevant ministries to collect opinions on institutional improvement to prevent the traffic accident. (‘24 Sep. 20)

The Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission (ACRC, Chairperson Ryu Chul Whan) thus prepared a institutional improvement plan to strengthen the management of driver’s licenses to prevent traffic accidents caused by poor driving or bad control and recommended it to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport, and Korea National Police Agency.

The institutional improvement plan calls for ▴ expanding the "conditional driver’s license" system which limits the scope of driving (e.g. restrict highway driving, night driving) in line with the actual driving ability, ▴ fundamentally prevent accidents caused by the poor driving skill or bad control by establishing legal grounds to implement safety standards on "prevention mechanism for bad pedal control" (e.g. operation or performance standards, evaluation methods), ▴ expand scale of the government subsidy to enhance the effectiveness of the current voluntary return of the driver's license which is conducted at the local government level, and ▴granting differential incentives weighted on the return of actual drivers*’ licenses.

* Example of an actual driver: A person with car insurance (including insurance that will be canceled within a year)

It also includes ▴improving the level of difficulty for qualification test of taxi, bus, and cargo drivers which currently has a pass rate of 98% (raising the failure standard, limit the retake opportunity) and adopt real-vehicle driving and VR-based evaluation system in the mid to long term and ▴ shorten the inspection period by streamlining process and method, and establish computer-based management system to prevent omission of test subjects.

* It takes up to 13 months after each institution checks the subjects of the test and decide whether to revoke their driver’s license. During the period, the suspected high-risk drivers can drive the car.

Chairperson of ACRC, Ryu Chul Whan said "There have been many traffic accidents recently that are seemed to be due to the negligence of the driver. We hope that various safety measures will be prepared to prevent accidents through the institutional improvement so that people can enjoy a safe daily life. We ask for active cooperation to the related ministries so that the improvement plan can be implemented as soon as possible.“