April 24, 2024

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[THE INVESTOR] A Korean law firm on Aug. 16 called on the government to adopt test measures to find out the cause of fires in BMW vehicles amid growing safety concerns about cars made by the German luxury brand.

In a press conference held in southern Seoul, Barun Law firm, which is representing two groups of BMW car owners who recently filed a joint lawsuits against the company over a faulty component that could have caused fires in their cars, urged Prime Minister Lee Nak-yeon and the Transport Ministry carry out “stress and simulation” tests on all affected vehicles.

The law firm also called on the government to buy a second-hand 520d sedan in Europe to compare it with the 520d models that caught fire in Korea and send one of the affected BMW vehicles to the US National Transportation Safety Board to undergo an analysis by the world-renowned organization.   

“We want the government to see if 520d sedans sold in Europe use the same exhaust gas recirculation module as vehicles sold in Korea. Sending an affected BMW vehicle to NTSB for analysis appears to be the ‘last resort’ to find out what exactly caused dozens of fires in BMW cars in Korea,” Jason Ha, a partner of Barun Law, told reporters.

By Song Seung-hyun and newswires (ssh@heraldcorp.com)