[News Terms] Responsibility for Child Support of Drunk Driving Victims 'Bentley Act'

The 'Bentley Law' is a law that holds the perpetrator responsible for the child support of the victim's children when a fatal drunk driving accident occurs. It was first implemented in Tennessee, USA, last January, and more than 20 state legislatures are currently pushing for the introduction of similar bills.

In April 2021, Bentley (5) and his younger brother Mason (3), who lived in Tennessee, lost their parents and a 4-month-old baby brother in a drunk driving accident. Upon hearing the news of the accident, Bentley's maternal grandmother, Cecilia Williams, became the guardian of her two grandsons without having time to grieve the sudden deaths of her son and daughter-in-law and her newborn grandson. Since the accident, she has traveled across the United States advocating for legislation that requires perpetrators of fatal drunk driving accidents to be responsible for the child support of the victims' children. The law created through this effort was named the 'Bentley Law' after her grandson.

A police officer is conducting a drunk driving crackdown using a 'contactless alcohol detector' on a road in Seoul.
[Photo by Yonhap News]

The official name is 'Ethan’s, Hailey‘s, and Bentley’s law.' Tennessee, where the Bentley Law was first enacted, included the names of Ethan and Hailey, the two children of a Tennessee police officer who died in a drunk driving and hit-and-run traffic accident, in the law's title.

Recently, as fatal drunk driving accidents have continued in South Korea, momentum for the enactment of the Bentley Law has accelerated. On February 8, the National Assembly Research Service released a report highlighting the necessity of introducing the Bentley Law, and on the 20th of last month, Representative Song Ki-heon of the Democratic Party (Wonju-eul) and Representative Kim Sung-won of the People Power Party (Dongducheon-Yeoncheon) each introduced a bill for a 'Korean version of the Bentley Law.'

According to a survey by the Korea Transport Institute, in all traffic accidents including drunk driving accidents, 24% of the victims' children were under the age of 3 at the time of the parents' death, and 36% were between 3 and 6 years old. After the accident, the average monthly household income was reduced to less than half. The rate of home ownership decreased, while the rate of living in rental housing increased. Additionally, more than half of the children with surviving parents responded that they had 'not recovered' after their parents' accident.

South Korea currently does not have separate support policies for children left behind by drunk driving traffic accidents. Therefore, there have been continuous calls for appropriate compensation and responsibility for the children of victims who have lost their guardians and protectors due to drunk driving traffic accidents.