Law enforcement officials conduct a crackdown on drunk driving on a street within the central metropolis of Sejong on April 8, 2021. (Yonhap)
SEOUL, June 24 (Korea Bizwire) — The variety of drunk driving accidents in Seoul sharply dropped two years into implementing stronger DUI legal guidelines, police knowledge confirmed Thursday.
In keeping with the Seoul Metropolitan Police Company, 931 DUI accidents have been reported within the capital from December final yr to June, down 41.2 p.c from 1,583 from December 2017 to June 2018.
The variety of deaths in such accidents additionally dropped by 33.3 p.c to eight over the identical interval.
In late 2018, the Nationwide Meeting revised DUI-related legal guidelines, together with the Highway Visitors Act, to toughen punishment for drunk driving offenses after a younger Military conscript was killed by a driver drunk within the southeastern port metropolis of Busan earlier that yr.
Underneath the revised legal guidelines, dubbed the Yoon Chang-ho Act named after the sufferer, DUI offenses leading to deaths may be punished by as much as life imprisonment and people leading to accidents by as much as 15 years in jail.
The blood alcohol degree for license suspension was lowered to 0.03 p.c from 0.05 p.c. The extent for license revocation additionally acquired pushed right down to 0.08 p.c from 0.1 p.c.
With stronger legal guidelines in place, the variety of busted drunk driving instances additionally fell by 24.7 p.c to 12,363 over the previous yr. Earlier than the amendments had been absolutely enforced in June 2019, the corresponding determine was 16,414.
Of the apprehended, 77.4 p.c had their driver’s license revoked, up over 10 proportion factors over the identical interval.
The Seoul police mentioned they’ll intensify crackdown on DUIs involving automobiles and private mobility units, like electrical scooters, as extra persons are anticipated to be out and about till late at evening underneath forthcoming eased social distancing guidelines.
From July, eating places and bars within the broad capital space shall be allowed to function till midnight. At present, they’ll solely keep open till 10 p.m.
(Yonhap)
