Taeyeon’s car accident raises favoritism controversy

A multiple-vehicle accident caused by Taeyeon of Girls‘ Generation sparked some controversy Wednesday amid allegations that the K-pop star had received quicker medical attention from the paramedic due to her celebrity status.

Taeyeon, the leader and main vocalist for Girls’ Generation, drove her Mercedes Benz vehicle into a taxi at a stop light around 8 p.m. Tuesday, causing the taxi to crash into an Audi vehicle, also at a stop, that was in front of it. 

Police said that Taeyeon had not been driving under the influence of alcohol when the accident occurred, injuring the two cab passengers and the driver of the Audi. The singer was uninjured, and her agency S.M. Entertainment apologized to the victims.

However, a controversy ensued Wednesday when a person claiming to be one of the two passengers in the cab that was hit by Taeyeon’s car, alleged that the paramedics who arrived on the scene gave favorable treatment to Taeyeon.

“I don’t know if it was because the she is famous, but (paramedics) wanted to carry her off to the hospital first and told us, the victims, to wait,” the alleged cab passenger wrote on an Instagram page, with a photo of the crash.

The person added that the rescue workers shrugged off the taxi driver’s injury as “just a scratch” and refused to let him sit in the ambulance.

Gangnam Fire Station, which dispatched the rescue workers to the scene, later said that the rescuers took care of Taeyeon first because they believed her condition to be more severe.

S.M. Entertainment has yet to comment on the accusations of favoritism.


By Yoon Min-sik
(minsikyoon@heraldcorp.com)