US-Korea investigations of schoolgirl death
The US-Korea Joint Investigation Team on June 19th announced the results of the investigation into the June 13th fatal accident involving a US armored vehicle and two high school girls, saying, ��쏷his accident was not a malicious or deliberate act, but a tragic accident.��� The results were announced at the US 2nd Infantry headquarters on June 19 at 7pm. The families of the deceased, US military officials, invited civic organizations and select media groups attended the briefing.
By Lee Soh-Hee
Translated by Sarah Eunkyung Chee
The US-Korea Joint Investigation Team on June 19th announced the results of the investigation into the June 13th fatal accident involving a US armored vehicle and two high school girls, saying, “This accident was not a malicious or deliberate act, but a tragic accident.” The results were announced at the US 2nd Infantry headquarters on June 19 at 7pm. The families of the deceased, US military officials, invited civic organizations and select media groups attended the briefing.
According to the results of the investigation, at the time of the accident, the vehicle was moving at a speed of 8-16 km/p/h moving from a curved road to a straight road with a slight incline. The vehicle did not cross the center divide and drove using both the single lane and the shoulder. However, because of the structure of the vehicle, the driver had limited visibility, and had particular difficulty seeing the right side, and was therefore not able to see the two students. When the vehicle came out of the curve, one military officer saw the students, but the vehicle was approximately 30 meters away from the girls. The military officer radioed the driver to stop the vehicle but failed. The officer failed a second time. As a result, the officer yelled for the vehicle to stop through the car interphone and the driver finally began to stop. Due to the size and speed of the vehicle, they were unable to stop immediately and collided with the two students. This entire period lasted approximately 8 seconds.
The Bradley armored vehicle [coming in the opposite direction] did not pass the first vehicle, and stopped approximately 1 meter away from the accident site. The ranking officer of the Bradley vehicle exited from the vehicle as soon as the accident happened, and finding that the students were still trapped under the wheels of the vehicle, ordered the driver to back out. The driver and the military officer of the accident vehicle were [negatively] tested for drugs and alcohol.
During this time, the families of the victims have maintained that the vehicle crossed the center divide, and in order to avoid hitting the vehicle coming in the other direction, veered to the shoulder and hit the teens, without respect for life, making this a deliberate act of murder.
Movie clip of the demonstration in front of the base following the accident.
http://voiceofpeople.org/tv/movie/0620_2nd.wmv
2002 / -0 / 6-
|
