Strengthened school zone punishments draws backlash

A police officer sets up a traffic enforcement camera in a school zone in Daejeon, Wednesday, a day after the National Assembly passed the Min-sik bill. / Yonhap

By Kim Hyun-bin

Passage of a bill introducing harsher punishment for drivers responsible for fatal accidents in school zones is facing a backlash, with critics saying it only focuses on stricter punitive measures without considering fairness in comparison with other criminal laws.

Dubbed the “Min-sik law” and legislated on Tuesday, the new law stipulates that speed cameras and traffic lights must be installed in all school zones 300 meters from school entrances, and that drivers convicted of killing children under 13 when driving in the areas at more than 30 kilometers per hour can face up to a lifetime in prison.

The law was named after a car killed Kim Min-sik, 9, in front of his elementary school in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, in September. The bill gained media attention on Nov. 19 after President Moon Jae-in received his first questions from Kim's parents during a town hall meeting, in which Moon promised speedy passage of the bill.

Although there is a public consensus on the need for increasing children's safety near schools, many point out that it automatically punishes drivers involved in fatal accidents without considering specific circumstances of who is at fault.

Han Moon-chul, a well-known lawyer specializing in traffic accidents, said in a YouTube broadcast that the law was unfair compared to other criminal laws that impose similar punishments.

“There needs to be more options and circumstances that need to be looked into similar to other laws that imprison a suspect for over three years,” he said. “It needs to be taken into consideration how much the victim and the suspect are at fault, and when the victim's fault is large the accused needs to be punished with a fine or probation.”

In most circumstances, the accused in a traffic accident is charged with driver negligence, not a deliberate offense.

Many people believe it is too harsh to punish a driver with imprisonment for negligence and that the offense should be seen differently from drunk driving or murder, where the crime is seen more as deliberate ― even murder can be punished with a minimum of five years in jail.

On Wednesday, a day after the bill was passed, a petition was posted on the website of Cheong Wa Dae, calling for revision to the law.

“There should be realistic preventive measures to reduce accidents in school zones instead of forcibly punishing the driver,” a petitioner said.

On the other hand, there are people who favor the tougher measures, claiming that children's safety in school zones should become the first priority.

“A school zone is a maximum of 600 meters. If a driver drives 20 kilometers an hour it will take one minute to drive 333 meters,” said a lawyer in favor of the bill. “It all comes down to if the driver could save a minute compared to the importance of securing children's' safety.”