Police to run poll on drunken driving law

South Korean police will be conducting a poll on whether to tighten the legal alcohol limit for drivers, officials said Tuesday.

The National Police Agency said that it will carry out a month-long survey on 1,000 Koreans on whether to lower the legal blood alcohol level for drivers from the current 0.05 to 0.03 percent. A glass of soju can lead to 0.03 percent of blood alcohol concentration.

The survey will ask respondents whether they think it is necessary for police to step up its crackdown on drunk driving and make it tougher for those convicted of driving under the influence to get a driver’s license again.

“We decided to carry out the survey to collect opinions from Koreans before we push for revising the Road Traffic Act to beef up crackdown,” a police official said.

The move comes amid growing criticism that punishment for drunk drivers here is too lenient. In most cases, they are sentenced to an average of 13 to 14 months in prison. Seventy percent of them receive suspended jail terms, according to prosecutors.

The number of drunk-driving casualties stood at 583 in 2015, accounting for about 10 percent of all deaths caused by traffic accidents. A total of 4,621 people were killed on the road in 2015, according to data released by the National Police Agency.

Prosecutor-General Kim Soo-nam had also called in early March for tougher sentencing of drunk drivers. “Drunk drivers who inflicted fatalities should be sentenced with punishments similar to that of murderers,” he said at an executive meeting of the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.

By Ock Hyun-ju (laeticia.ock@heraldcorp.com)