Nine-hundred and fifty-nine times. That’s how many times Cha Sa-soon, age 69, failed her driver’s test in the last five years.
Luckily for her (maybe?), 960 was the magic number, and Sa-soon can now join the rest of the motorists on the road in South Korea without being in the midst of taking a driving test. This was made possible by taking the test daily, five days a week since April 2005 until Sa-soon slowed to a more manageable pace of just a couple times a week.
While it might seem amazing that it took 960 tries to pass the test, and that the law allows for so many attempts over such a long period of time, but the story has another interesting twist: the woman’s last name, Sa-soon, actually translates to “vehicle” in Korean.
The woman told news outlets that she was determined to get her license so she could driver her children to the zoo. Naturally, to celebrate the passing of the test Sa-soon joined the majority of Koreans in owning a new Hyundai product, more specifically, a Kia Soul . Hyundai jumped at the opportunity to claim some of the national spotlight being shown on Sa-soon, creating a special commercial to highlight her accomplishment.
While one might think allowing Sa-soon to driver her grandchildren so soon may not be the best of drivers, instructors insist that Sa-soon failed because she struggled with the written part of the exam due to stress, and that she should be a perfectly safe driver on the roads.
Let’s hope so – for everyone’s sake.
References
1.’Grandmother passes driving test…’ view
2.’south Korean grandmother…’ view
