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A foreign man has been sentenced to three years in prison for fatally running over a woman who was sleeping on the roadside in Ulsan in July.

The Ulsan District Court on Sunday convicted the man in his 50s of causing severe injuries to the woman in her 20s by running her over with his car when she was lying there and subsequently, fleeing the scene. Three hours later, she died as a result of the incident.

The man claimed that he did not know his vehicle hit her body because it happened at night, saying he thought it was "some sort of blanket."

However, the court rejected his claims, given that there were lampposts near the spot and that his vehicle was visually shaken at the moment of the incident. Also, the video showing that the man got out of the car to check what happened soon afterward and the fact that he parked his vehicle far away from home that day suggested that he knew he may have hit a person, the court said.

"The man's failure to keep his eyes on the road caused the incident. He also failed to reach an agreement with her bereaved family," the court said. "However, the fact that the victim was also partly at fault for lying on the roadside under the influence of alcohol was factored into the sentence."