caraccidentsbydrunkdrivers.doc

Car Accident Arouse Debate about Making Drink Driving a CrimeFrequent car accidents caused by drunk drivers have recently caused widespread public concern. They also have prompted促使 a heated debate over whether drunk driving should be considered a crime. Wang Ling has more:Reporter:Data released by the traffic authority show that there were more than 220,000 cases of drunk driving nationwide in the first half of the year, up nearly 9 percent year-on-year.As drunk driving has become increasingly serious in cities, many people have called for more severe punishment for violators.I think the punishment should be increased because many accidents are caused by drunk driving.If the penalty is light, people hardly will pay attention to the issue. Only under the threat of a severe penalty will they behave themselves.In China, drunk driving is currently considered a traffic violation违反, and drivers can only be detained拘留 for up to 15 days if they do not cause an accident. But many say the light penalty is the primary reason why drunk driving has been on the rise.A panel座谈小组 of legal experts recently suggested to judges on the countrys top court that drunk driving should be treated as a crime regardless of whether or not the driver causes a crash.Ruan Qilin, a law professor at Beijing-based China University of Political Science and Law, says drunk drivers should face criminal charges.Under the current law, only drunk driving that causes deaths and losses of more than 300,000 yuan that the driver cannot compensate can be treated as a crime. Otherwise, no matter how much alcohol the driver has consumed, drunk driving only can be considered a violation of traffic rules. So its a loophole漏洞 in the legal system.But some legal experts say that it would be overly harsh to treat drunk driving as a crime.Qu Xinjiu, a professor at China University of Political Science and Law.Considering Chinas current situation, I think right now its too early to treat drunk driving as a crime. I think drivers can be bound by morals. As the public is in a great rage at the moment, we should be more cautious and keep a cool head when new legislation is proposed. The public may vent its anger if drunk driving is considered a violation of criminal law. But in the long run, it would be a hard task to implement贯彻 the law.Yang Yu, a news commentator on China Central Television, suggests that an anti-drunk driving campaign should be listed as a national task for Chinas 12th Five-year Plan starting from 2011.As drunk driving is endangering public safety, and the public is calling for violators to be punished, I suggest the government include a crackdown镇压 on drunk driving in Chinas 12th Five-year Plan. I believe that not only big efforts such as building airports and highways and hosting Olympic Games should be considered national tasks, but also things that are closely related to public interest like the fight against drunk driving. The Ministry of Public Security says it will start discussions with other government departments to determine whether it is necessary to increase the penalties for drunk driving. -Wang Ling, CRI News.（2009,8,17）China plans to list drink driving as crime to intensify crackdown （2010,8,23）BEIJING, Aug. 23 (Xinhua) - Drink driving and street racing have been written into a draft amendment修改草案 to Chinas Criminal Law as crimes, as part of the countrys efforts to make its roads safer.The draft amendment was submitted Monday to the Standing Committee常务委员会 of the National Peoples Congress (NPC), Chinas top legislature, for its first reading.Convicted drink drivers may face forced labor while in detention拘留 for one to six months and be fined, even if their actions cause no accident, according to the draft law.Currently, drink drivers are detained for 15 days, according to the Law on Road Traffic Safety.Drink driving and street racing have been heavily criticized by the public.The amendment is a response to increased calls for more severe punishment of dangerous driving on Chinese roads.In 2009, Chinese traffic police caught 313,000 drink drivers.Prof. Zhao Bingzhi with Beijing Normal University said traffic accident crimes as stipulated 规定in the Criminal Law are inadequate and ineffective in stopping drivers from racing or driving under influence of alcohol.The traffic accident criminal law only punishes those who have already caused an accident, which might involve deaths or serious injuries, or major losses of public or private property, Zhao said.Drink driving and racing are extremely dangerous so we cant wait for the accident to happen and then punish the perpetrator, he added.Cheng Bin, an attorney at Beijing Guandao Law Firm, said including drink driving and street racing crimes into the law would prevent traffic accidents and better protect drivers and passengers.Is Drunk Driving a Felony? （UPDATED: August-31-2009 NO. 35 SEPTEMBER 3, 2009）Drunk driving, a major killer in China for decades, may soon incur harsher penalties for offenders. Several high-profile alcohol-related traffic accidents in recent months have triggered a nationwide debate on whether driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) should be subject to the Criminal Law.On June 30, in Nanjing, capital of east Chinas Jiangsu Province, a drunk driver killed five people, injured four and damaged six cars when he was behind the wheel.A sport utility vehicle killed a 16-year-old girl on the night of August 4 in Hangzhou, capital of east Chinas Zhejiang Province. The driver was found to be driving drunk.In 2008, 73,484 people died in China as a result of traffic accidents. Almost 20,000 of those deaths resulted from drunk driving.Some attribute the growing trend of alcohol-related traffic accidents to ineffective punishments. The Road Traffic Safety Law requires that confirmed drunk drivers be detained for 15 days when nothing serious happens and be forced to pay a fine of 2,000 yuan ($300). When a drunk driver causes a traffic accident, the penalty includes imprisonment between three and seven years.Some lawyers are appealing to revise the Criminal Law, saying that drunk driving should be made into a felony重罪. Their suggestion has been supported by a majority of netizens in a recent online survey.Other lawyers say that, even if the drivers are sentenced to death, road safety will not be better protected. Tough penalties may have a deterrent威慑 effect in the short term, but the long-term solution, they say, is to cultivate rule-abiding awareness among drivers.More severe punishment neededLi Long (Pengcheng Evening News): The Road Traffic Safety Law explicitly forbids drunk driving, but in reality DUI offenses are reported everywhere. Due to a lack of uniform standards, the penalty for drunk drivers varies in different regions. For example, in cases of drunk driving with fatalities, drivers who were accused of breaking traffic laws and regulations would be sentenced to at most three years in prison, but those who were charged with endangering public safety would be sentenced to death.The current Criminal Law should be revised to stipulate that DUI constitutes a felony. In the United States, if a drunk-driving accident leads to the loss of life, the driver will be accused of murder in the second degree. We should also reinforce the punishment.Zhang Guangjun (Procuratorial Daily): In China, drunk driving now causes tens of thousands of traffic accidents and 50 percent of traffic deaths.In modern society, laws, especially the Criminal Law, need to embody the spirit of tolerance, but this does not necessarily mean that criminals can be exempt from punishment. While also safeguarding the basic rights of criminal drivers, its more important to protect law-abiding citizens against the threat posed by drunk drivers.Wu Renshou (): Traffic offenses fall into three categories in the current Criminal Law of Chinaaverage road accidents that carry a punishment of less than three years in prison, hit-and-run that brings imprisonment of three to seven years and fatal hit-and-run that brings imprisonment of seven to 15 years. The Chinese legal system has been too lenient慈悲为怀的 on traffic offenses.Although DUI is banned in the Road Traffic Safety Law, the law still fails to prevent DUI offenses from happening again and again. The root cause is that DUI has not been criminalized separately.For those fatal traffic accidents, many drivers have been accused of endangering public safety using dangerous means, which is hard to realize in practice. The crime of endangering public safety using dangerous means is subject to intention, and it is hard to give evidence that a suspect deliberately meant to commit the offense.The improvement in the road traffic situation and the reduction of DUI offenses are directly connected with law enforcement. If too loose, DUI offenders could simply settle their cases by paying money and receive a lenient sentence; some offenders may even escape from criminal responsibility. If this is allowed to be the case, we will see more and more DUI offenses in the future.The recent spate（flood） of DUI offenses has taught us that we have lost our principles when dealing with those offenders.Cars are becoming more and more popular for household use, which unfortunately adds to DUI offenses. Decreasing it from happening and protecting the public should be a major concern that relevant departments are forced to tackle.I believe China should add DUI crime to its legal system and punish offenders more severely. Only through this practice can the public be protected and DUI be prevented.Yang Tao (Qilu Evening News): Cars are convenient tools, but they can also mean danger. The fact is that drivers will become less capable of controlling their vehicles if they have become impaired削弱 by alcohol. From a legal perspective, drunk driving endangers public safety. It is thus totally acceptable for those who drive drunk to take criminal responsibility, no matter if they are caught in traffic accidents or not. Then a large number of drunk-driving-related traffic accidents could be prevented.Legal provisions alone are not enough to punish drunk driving. More important is strict law enforcement. Otherwise, the law is useless no matter how severe the consequences it prescribes.Solution already availableZong Yuan (Procuratorial Daily): In response to the frequent occurrence of DUI offenses, many people say China should impose more severe punishment against offenders, thus deterring potential drunk drivers. But we should not be too opportunistic about the effects of severe laws. In my opinion, law enforcement, rather than law making, plays a more important role in curbing DUI.The reason is quite simple. The effects of punishment are not decided by its severity, but by its predictability and timeliness. The predictability means that any crime will be prosecuted 实行and punished without exception, while timeliness means that all offenders will be prosecuted in the shortest possible time. A dearth缺乏 of predictability and timeliness will render the law ineffective. No matter how severe the legitimate punishment is, if it is not effective, it will not work to prevent the crime from happening.Here is a simple case as an example. We all know that intentionally killing another will result in the death sentence. The death sentence is a serious punishment indeed. However, murders will not be punished if the police cannot apprehend them. In this sense, police officers ability to fulfill their duties by capturing each murder outweighs lawmakers harsh edict. If every drunk driver is found out and punished in a proper and timely manner, irresponsible drivers would not dare to challenge the law.Law enforcement must be enhanced to make the punishment more timely and effective. We should punish all traffic offenses, including DUI, the very first time, leaving no time or space to escape.In the run-up to and during the Olympic Games in 2008, traffic authorities in Beijing intensified their efforts to thwart DUI. DUI-involved accidents decreased dramatically as a result. The first half of this year witnessed a rebounding number of DUI offenses and casualties due to looser enforcement. Obviously, the best way to curb DUI is to keep the police force on the road and to punish offenders in a timely manner.Shan Shibing (Xian Evening News): For Chinese people, a society built around automobiles is so new that our awareness of safety and observing laws has not yet caught up. Authorities and the public are seeking viable ways to counter an increasing number of DUI offenses. Nevertheless, should we ma