A Lyft driver was killed in Fairhill by the driver of a stolen Kia. His daughter is suing the car company for making the vehicles so easy to steal.
John Swen was killed in a January 2023 crash amid the viral Kia Boyz Challenge trend that popularized a simple technique to steal the car.
John Swen was driving a Lyft around Fairhill the night of Jan. 14, 2023, when a driver of a stolen 2000 Kia Optima hit his car at a high speed. The 32-year-old from Bristol was pronounced dead at the scene, while the Kia’s driver and passenger ran away. Two suspects were apprehended by police later that night.
As the criminal case against the driver unfolds, a civil lawsuit is seeking more accountability on behalf of Swen’s daughter, Esther.
The lawsuit, filed Monday in Philadelphia Common Pleas Court, argues that the Kia Corp. is responsible for John Swen’s death. The South Korean car manufacturer knew that its vehicles were especially simple to break into, the lawsuit says, and by not issuing a recall, Kia facilitated reckless driving by car thieves like the one who drove the car that killed Esther Swen’s father.
The complaint also names the accused driver of the stolen Kia, Dominic Samuels, and a Philadelphia Kia dealership, where the car was originally purchased. The lawsuit seeks unspecified monetary damages.
The fatal crash happened amid a disturbing trend that took off in Philadelphia in 2022: As part of the so-called Kia Boyz Challenge, people posted videos on TikTok showing how easy it was to break into certain Kias and Hyundais with nothing more than a USB cord and a screwdriver.
The vehicles did not have engine immobilizer protection like most other cars, making them especially easy to break into and steal. In 2022, one in five cars stolen in Philadelphia was a Kia or a Hyundai, up from one in 14 the year before.
Samuels allegedly stole the Kia a few hours before the crash near a Wissinoming ShopRite store, while the vehicle’s owner was shopping, according to the lawsuit. All that was left where the owner parked the car was the passenger-side front window, which is consistent with the break-in technique popularized on TikTok.
The fatal crash on Lehigh Avenue occurred less than five hours after the owner left the car, and just over four miles away.
Samuels was arrested the night of the crash, about half a mile from the scene, after attempting to flee, according to the lawsuit. He is facing felony criminal charges including homicide by vehicle and theft.
Samuels’ criminal lawyer declined to comment on the civil lawsuit.
Kia knew that the 2020 Optima model did not have industry-standard antitheft precautions, such as requiring a key fob in the car to allow to disengage an immobilizer to turn the engine on, said Swen’s attorney, Anthony Baratta, of Baratta Law.
The manufacturer marketed and sold the car despite the “actual likelihood that criminals will exploit the defect in the Kia vehicles and engage in reckless driving,” the attorney said.
Kia could have recalled the cars, the complaint said, but instead it offered car owners a glass-break alarm to purchase for $170, the complaint said.
The car manufacturer declined to comment on the lawsuit.
Hyundai, which is a partial owner of Kia, and Kia settled a federal class-action lawsuit earlier this year, creating a $145 million fund to compensate people whose cars were stolen. And recent data suggest that software upgrades to the vehicles cut theft rates by more than half.