There have been two high-profile accidents in Singapore recently involving Hyundai Sonata taxis.

On March 30, a 78-year-old woman who was looking for cardboard behind a coffee shop at Bedok North Street 2 next to an open-air car park was killed when a Comfort taxi trying to reverse into a parking space suddenly mounted the kerb at high speed and rammed into her.

She died at the scene despite attempts to save her by doctors from a nearby clinic.

On April 4, a CityCab taxi was seen in a video circulating on social media showing the driver speeding off after reversing violently into a stationary car in an open-air car park in Redhill.

The taxi driver was subsequently sacked.

ComforDelGro group runs both the Comfort and CityCab fleets, which uses Hyundai Sonata taxis.

ComfortDelGro did not respond to queries by Mothership.sg about the Redhill car park accident possibly resulting from a problem with the vehicle instead of human error.

Sudden unintended acceleration phenomenon in South Korea

Over at HardwareZone forum, speculation is rife whether these two reported accidents involving Hyundai Sonata vehicles could have been linked to the sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) phenomenon, which first came into public's consciousness in South Korea in May 2012.

This was after an elderly couple in their 60s were involved in a serious accident there that was caught on video.

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Footage take from their vehicle appeared to show that the couple’s Hyundai Sonata suddenly accelerated and, after 13 seconds of manoeuvring by the driver to avoid other cars, wound up rear-ending a car at a stoplight at a speed of 130 km/h.

This caught the South Korean government's attention, after being alerted to the crash by the widespread outrage from fellow drivers and an investigation was launched into the sudden acceleration claim.

According to this article, a total of 417 accidents assumed to have to do with sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) were reported in South Korea between 2010 and August 2014.

What online forums are speculating

Comments in the forum have run the gamut from the plausible-sounding to the purely conspiratorial, as usual.

Of note, is the comment urging viewers to watch closely the video of the reversing taxi in the Redhill car park, as it does not appear to be behaving in a regular fashion.

For example, when the reverse lights come on the second time after the taxi had already collided into the car, the taxi immediately lurched backwards.

And once the car was engaged to move forward, it surged ahead at high speed.

We will be updating this article as and when ComfortDelGro responds or if there are futher developments.

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