[Column] Punishment for drunk driving: Can you avoid imprisonment even if you are caught twice?

Drunk driving is a mistake that is easily committed in everyday life. There are many cases where people get behind the wheel thinking that they are not drunk, and there are many cases where they are caught driving while intoxicated due to impaired judgment.

According to the Road Traffic Act, driving is prohibited if the driver's blood alcohol concentration is 0.03% or higher. This is because when you drive while intoxicated, your judgment and motor skills decrease and the likelihood of a traffic accident increases if an unexpected situation occurs.

Drunk driving is one of the 12 gross negligence offenses and is subject to criminal punishment, including imprisonment and fines, regardless of whether or not you have insurance. In addition to criminal liability, in the event of an accident, the driver is subject to civil liability such as increased insurance premiums and imposition of deductibles, as well as administrative liability such as imposition of penalty points and suspension and cancellation of driver's license.

In particular, he has a history of being caught for drunk driving once, and if he is caught for drunk driving again, the punishment will be aggravated, making it difficult to avoid imprisonment. Among the punishments for drunk drivers called the Yoon Chang-ho Act, the provision of aggravated punishment for more than two offenses was ruled unconstitutional, but looking at the sentencing standards set by the Sentencing Commission, this is because aggravating factors are still applied to repeat offenders.

In fact, one client who had been punished for drunk driving in the past was caught driving his car while drunk with a blood alcohol level of 0.169% on a 100m stretch of the road, and was at risk of imprisonment as he had already been fined for drunk driving in the past. This is a violation of Article 44, Paragraph 1 or 2 of the Road Traffic Act.

The fact that the client admits to the crime in this case and is reflecting on it, the fact that the client did not cause additional damage such as a traffic accident due to drunk driving in this case, the circumstances leading to the drunk driving, the client's blood alcohol concentration level at the time, the distance of drunk driving, age, behavior, environment, motive for the crime, and the circumstances after the crime were taken into consideration, and the client was spared imprisonment despite being caught twice.

The court accepted these grounds for sentencing and sentenced him to one year in prison and two years of probation. He was also ordered to take 40 hours of law-abiding driving classes. Although it was difficult to avoid imprisonment due to his history of drunk driving, he was able to obtain a suspended sentence with the help of a criminal lawyer.

In this way, if you are in a situation where you are at risk of aggravated punishment due to a history of drunk driving, it may be necessary to respond together with the assistance of a criminal lawyer from the beginning of the investigation, rather than responding alone.

Written by: Lawyer Jeong Chan-woo of Daeryun Law Firm

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