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SEOUL, May 3 (Korea Bizwire) — A new law has entered effect to qualify inline skating accidents causing human injuries on the pavement as gross negligent traffic accidents.
The National Police Agency recently ordered police stations around the country to consider cases in which people older than 13 years cause human injuries while riding inline or roller skates on the road as traffic accidents.
The enforcement regulation of the Road Traffic Act was revised to stipulate that when traffic accidents occur, instruments or equipment causing the accidents should be treated as pedestrians if their width is less than 1 meter but as vehicles if their width is larger than 1 meter.
In addition, any person older than 13 years of age who causes traffic accidents while using recreational equipment such as e-scooters, roller skates, inline skates and skateboards on the road should be treated as having caused traffic accidents regardless of the width of the equipment.
Accordingly, such behavior can be treated similarly as criminal cases of violating traffic signals, the center line, and drunk or unlicensed driving rules.
Even when victims do not request punishment, the offenders can be sentenced to imprisonment of up to five years or a fine of up to 20 million won (US$15,775).
Against this backdrop, there are concerns even among the inner circle of the police that the revised enforcement regulation could lead to excessive punishment.
M. H. Lee (mhlee@koreabizwire.com)
