Court rules aggregated punishment for repeat DUI offenses unconstitutional

Nine justices take their place inside the Constitutional Court in central Seoul, Dec. 27, 2019. The court ruled Thursday that a law calling for aggregated punishment against repeat drunk driving offenses or refusing field sobriety testing was unconstitutional. / Yonhap

The Constitutional Court ruled Thursday that a law calling for aggregated punishment against repeated offenses of drunk driving or refusing field sobriety testing is unconstitutional.

The nine-justice panel made the ruling in a 7-2 vote to a clause of the country's revised Road Traffic Act, dubbed the Yoon Chang-ho act, named after a high-profile DUI case. A vote of two-thirds is required to reverse a ruling.

The controversial law, revised in 2020, has lost its validity following the ruling.

The clause states that those committing DUIs or refusing to take a breathalyzer test on two or more occasions should be put behind bars for between two and five years or fined 10 million won to 20 million won ($7,896-$15,792).

The court ruled that aggregated punishment for multiple violations was excessive, saying it was too much to label a person a repeat drunk driving offender when there was a considerable interval between the two offenses.

Last year, the Constitutional Court made a similar ruling and delivered a non-constitutional decision against another clause of the Road Traffic Act. (Yonhap)