South Korea is currently invested in hit-and-run incidents ever since the "cream bread father" incident in which 29-year-old Mr. Kang fell victim to hit-and-run and died on the spot.
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On January 10 around 1:10 AM, Mr. Kang was walking home in the city of Cheongju after buying a bag of cream breads for his pregnant wife of seven months. According to reports, a white BMW ran into Mr. Kang and then left the scene. Mr. Kang was found dead where he was hit.
Mr. Kang is a truck driver who was reportedly a devoted husband. He worked in order to not only support his unborn child but to also support his wife's efforts in obtaining a teacher's certificate. The last time Mr. Kang spoke to his wife was when he called her that night, saying, "I bought you cream bread instead of cake, your favorite. I'm sorry. Even so, let's work hard to become amazing parents for Sae Byeol (unborn child's name)."
Netizens have been captivated by Mr. Kang's sad story and some news outlets have dug into other hit-and-run incidents to open up discussion on this topic. On January 26, Chosun Ilbo uploaded a CCTV clip of two 2013 hit-and-runs on their YouTube channel.
The first hit-and-run incident shown in the clip above took place on January 11, 2013. In the clip, an intoxicated man lays on the ground of a residential street and falls asleep. A taxi driver drives over his body. The driver gets out of the car, evidently aware that he hit something. After looking around and identifying the intoxicated man, rather than help him get out from under the car or call the ambulance, the driver instead chooses to drive even further, dragging the body with his car.
The victim was immediately taken to a hospital by those who discovered him after the taxi driver left. He luckily survived while the taxi driver was arrested by the police a couple of days later.
The second hit-and-run incident took place on August 2013 in an alley located in the city of Busan. At the 1:40 mark of the clip, a car runs over a walking pedestrian. Although this driver checks on the victim, he also leaves without helping. Apparently, nearby witnesses did not take any action, either, and according to reports, 40 people walked past the victim until someone finally called the ambulance for him. The victim fell into critical condition while the driver was arrested on a separate day.
Netizens have commented on these clips, saying, "In our country, when something becomes a hot topic, other things related to it become hot topics. The problem is that we are only interested now and we don't think of reinforcing the law. Only when something big happens do we reflect on what happened in the past. The law needs to be strong," "We should definitely charge hit-and-runs as attempted murders. Hitting someone with a car and then abandoning them is obviously an act of murder," and, "Damn, would they have done that if it were their family?"
As for the "cream bread father," police have since analyzed around 50 CCTV clips of the recent January 10 incident in an attempt to track down the car. However, they have reported that it has been nearly impossible to identify the car's license plate number. Thus far, the police have identified four different owners of white BMWs as possible suspects.
The Chungbeok Provincial Police Force has stated, "We will focus to do all we can to arrest the hit-and-run criminal at our investigation headquarters."
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