By Chung Hyun-chae
Habitual drunk drivers or those who cause accidents while under the influence of alcohol that result in deaths will have their vehicles confiscated, police and prosecution said, Sunday.
The penalty is part of strengthened measures to root out drunk driving, as the number of habitual drunk drivers is on the rise.
The National Police Agency and the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office announced a set of stronger regulations for drunk driving, which will take effect today.
Under the new measure, the prosecution will request a court to confiscate the vehicles of drivers who, under the influence of alcohol, cause an accident resulting in a death or are stopped for drunk driving five times in five years. The forfeiture will be based on a criminal law clause which stipulates that an article used in a criminal act can be confiscated.
Those causing death through drunk driving will be arrested in principle.
“Through the stern actions, we want to change social values that are lenient on drunk driving, and to prevent people previously caught for drunk driving from reoffending,” an official from the prosecutors’ office said.
Of some 243,000 people who were caught drunk driving last year, 498 had previously caused accidents killing people, while 139 had been caught drunk driving at least five times in five years, according to police.
Although the total number of drunk drivers has decreased from 269,800 in 2013 to 251,700 in 2014 and 243,100 in 2015, the people who had been caught drunk driving more than three times increased from 39,400 in 2013 to 44,700 in 2014 and 44,900 in 2015.
“We may face some problems in terms of equality, as we will not be able to confiscate cars if the cars are not owned by the drivers, such as rental cars,” the official said. “We’ll look into related laws more thoroughly.”
In a related move, police and the prosecution will seek stern measures against those who “aid and abet” drunk driving, including passengers who ride with the drunk drivers. “People who provide alcohol to the drivers, although it is well predictable that the drivers will drink and drive, can be subject to punishment, even including bar or restaurant owners,” he said.
According to the prosecution, the number of people accused of aiding drunk driving from 2002 to 2015 was 96, and 89 of them were fined.
In addition, those with blood alcohol concentration of 0.1 percent or more, which is subject to driver’s license cancellation, will receive an aggravated punishment.
Police will also move sobriety checkpoints from one place to another every 20-30 minutes to catch those who take side streets to avoid getting caught.