The police said Monday they had arrested all those accused in hit-and-run murders nationwide so far this year, prompted by public furor that erupted in January over the killing of a young father-to-be who was hit by a car and left on the street to die.

As a result of stepped-up initial response to reports of hit-and-run, the police arrested a total of 125 people from January to October across the nation who have hit and killed somebody and then left the scene of a car accident.

The total arrest rate in hit-and-run cases stood at 95.1 percent during the 10-month period, arresting 7,207 people in 7,582 cases, up 4.5 percentage points from a year earlier. 

The ramped-up efforts came after the police were slammed earlier this year for their failure to initially track down a hit-and-run driver in the “cream bread dad” case that received wide media attention.

The 37-year-old man, surnamed Heo, killed a 29-year-old man who was calling his pregnant wife before the accident to apologize for buying her a buttercream-stuffed pastry, instead of a cake she asked for, because he didn’t have enough money.

A wave of public sympathy prompted a nationwide hunt for the hit-and-run driver, which pressured Heo to turn himself in. He was sentenced to three years imprisonment. 

Following the incident, the police have mobilized not only the team in charge of hit-and-run cases, but also police officers dealing with general traffic accidents to swiftly respond to such incidents, the police said. 

Most recently, the police succeeded in apprehending a man within 13 hours last month, as they found white paint at the scene and traced all the 245 white-colored vehicles registered with the city government in Gangjin, South Jeolla Province. 

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)