[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] A system that measures alcohol consumption when using rental cars and restricts the engine start if drinking is detected will be piloted for the first time in Korea.
The Korea Transportation Safety Authority (KTSA) announced on the 11th that it plans to conduct a pilot project for rental cars equipped with drunk driving prevention devices. The authority is currently coordinating with rental car companies on the number of pilot vehicles and the timing of the project implementation.
Earlier, last year, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission surveyed the public on the introduction of engine immobilizers, and about 95% supported installing engine immobilizers for vehicles driven by drunk driving offenders.
The authority pointed out, "Rental cars are used by an unspecified number of drivers, making driver management limited, and large-scale drunk driving accidents have continuously occurred, such as a high school student in Gwangju last year driving a rental car with eight passengers while intoxicated."
In fact, looking at the number of traffic accident fatalities by industry for commercial vehicles over the past five years, there were 1,137 (35.9%) in freight, 840 (26.5%) in taxis, 686 (21.7%) in buses, and 505 (15.9%) in rental cars, with rental cars having the lowest number of fatalities.
However, the number of traffic accident deaths caused by drunk driving was highest in rental cars with 83 (65.4%), followed by freight with 22 (17.3%), taxis with 17 (13.4%), and buses with 5 (3.9%).
The number of drunk driving deaths per 100,000 vehicles was 2.2 for rental cars and 1.3 for non-commercial passenger cars. Additionally, over the past five years, the number of drunk driving deaths in non-commercial passenger cars decreased by 13.1%, whereas rental cars saw an increase of 11.4%.
Drunk driving prevention devices are installed overseas in countries such as the United States and Sweden for drivers with a history of drunk driving.
The authority plans to study the effectiveness, issues, and domestic application methods of drunk driving prevention devices through the pilot project.
Kwon Yong-bok, director of the authority, said, "We will strive to establish the installation of drunk driving prevention devices as an effective measure to reduce accidents," adding, "Drunk driving is a criminal act that threatens the lives of others, and even a single drink should never lead to getting behind the wheel."
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