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| A crashed car lies on a coastal road after being salvaged from the sea in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, Tuesday. Five teenagers were killed as the car hit the guardrail and fell into the sea. / Yonhap |
Gov't plans to set regulation punishing ID lender
By Kim Jae-heun
A recent car crash that killed five teenagers has shown the lax system used by car rental apps is not sufficient to identify the person renting the vehicle.
On Tuesday, three men and two women, all 19 years old, were on a trip to Gangneung, Gangwon Province, when their rented vehicle crashed into a guardrail and fell into the sea.
They rented the car through a car rental service on a mobile phone application. The company requires drivers to be at least 21 years old and have at least one year of driving experience.
None of the five teenagers satisfied the company's terms and conditions but they had no problem renting a vehicle as all they needed was an acquaintance's account information of the car rental app ― one of them borrowed the name and driver's license from a 22-year-old neighbor.
The car sharing and rental app only requires users to register their identification and driver's license information once, and afterward the users are able to rent a car at a nearby parking lot anytime. No one is there to check that the actual driver matches the registered information.
This kind of system could lead to drivers renting cars with borrowed IDs ― as was the case with the Gangneung accident ― meaning minors, unlicensed adults or even drivers suspended for drunk driving can rent and drive a car without being checked.
"In the past, you had to go to a dealer to rent a car in person but now all you need is your older brother's or sister's account," a senior high school student told The Korea Times, Wednesday. "It's very simple. You just see what cars are available in the closest parking lot and reserve your favorite model."
As a result, accidents involving vehicles rented through car sharing and car rental services are frequent.
In 2017, a middle school student had a car accident after he borrowed a vehicle with his mother's ID. Last year, a college student rented a car and caused a drunk-driving accident, killing three friends onboard and injuring two. In another case, nine teenagers stole several adults' account information and borrowed nearly 100 cars. They caused about 20 hit-and-run accidents.
Socar, one of the country's biggest car sharing and car rental services, said it sends text messages to customers notifying them of the rental and the payment so they can be alerted if somebody else has used their account.
"However, if the account holder actively cooperates with other people to allow them to borrow their ID, there is not much we can do to prevent them from renting a car," a Socar official said.
The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport admits the current car rental system has a loophole in which anyone can rent a car with an account they borrow or steal.
Since last year, the ministry has been seeking measures to enforce a rule whereby people are only able to rent a car through one mobile device which they have registered upon making the account ID, so other people cannot use the borrowed ID on their own phones.
However, such a system has not been adopted yet and the ministry is urging the car-sharing application company to introduce the technology earlier than they planned.
Socar is also planning to adopt secondary identification with biometric technology in which customers have to use their fingerprints or face in the final procedure of renting a vehicle.
Some industry watchers suggest the government set up a rule to punish those lending out their IDs to others.
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