Korean actress Kim Sae-ron’s drunk driving incident in Gangnam, Seoul on May 18 was caught on CCTV.
The 21-year-old star of the drama “The Great Shaman Ga Doo-shim” and movie “A Man from Nowhere” (with actor Won Bin), the Gangnam Police Station said, was driving her SUV in Cheongdam, Gangnam at about 8 a.m. when she crashed and hit a structure.
CCTV footage obtained by Korean media channel YTN showed Kim Sae-ron coming out from an alley and turning right on the main road.
After she turned right, she swerved and hit a big transformer box on the sidewalk. This caused inconvenience to establishments around the area as it caused a power outage.
The CCTV footage also showed that after hitting the transformer, Kim Sae-ron drove again. YTN reported that Kim Sae-ron was caught by the police 30 minutes after the incident. It added that Kim Sae-ron was with another person in the car.
She was asked to take a breathalyzer test, which indicated that she was drunk driving. However, she wanted to take a blood alcohol test and was taken to a nearby hospital.
The police said after blood collection, they plan to request Korea’s National Forensic Service to check Kim Sae-ron’s blood alcohol level and the results are expected to come out after seven days.
After the incident, her agency, Gold Medalist, issued a statement on May 18 but no apology.
"Kim Saeron took a blood test for accurate results, and after the test, she was escorted home by her guardian without additional investigation. The blood test result will be available in two weeks, and Kim Saeron will faithfully respond to the police's questioning afterward," the agency said, according to SBS News.
This enraged Korean netizens who criticized Kim Sae-ron for not owning up to what she had caused.
On May 19, or more than 24 hours after the incident, Kim Sae-ron finally issued an apology through her agency.
“First of all, we would like to apologize for the delay in making an official position because it took time to determine the exact facts,” Gold Medalist claimed.
It said, “We sincerely apologize for causing concern due to the accident caused by drunk driving of our affiliated actor Kim Sae-ron.”
“Kim Sae-ron is deeply reflecting on her mistakes. In addition, Sae-ron Kim sincerely apologizes to the many people who have suffered damage and inconvenience and to all those who are working hard to restore damaged public facilities, and promised to do her best to repair the damage,” it said.
It added, “Kim Sae-ron was sent home after a blood test yesterday (18th), and will be diligent in the police investigation afterwards. We, too, are deeply responsible for the occurrence of such an incident. We apologize again to everyone who has experienced this inconvenience. We will do our best to communicate and proactively solve problems in the future.”
“We will try to be more careful in managing our artists to prevent this from happening. We apologize for the inconvenience once again,” it said.