Accident Only 7 Days After License Suspension
Prison Term Reduced from 8 Years to 6 Years
A man in his 20s who, while driving without a license, drank alcohol, sped, and crossed the centerline causing an accident that killed two people, was again sentenced to a prison term on appeal.
According to a report by Yonhap News on the 13th, the Criminal Appellate Division 2-1 of the Incheon District Court (Presiding Judge Lee Suhwan) overturned the lower court’s sentence of 8 years in prison and a fine of 300,000 won imposed on Defendant A (25), who had been detained and indicted on charges including dangerous driving causing death under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, and instead sentenced him to 6 years in prison and a fine of 300,000 won. For Passenger B (25), who was indicted together on a charge of aiding and abetting drunk driving under the Road Traffic Act, the court dismissed the appeal and maintained the original sentence of 8 months in prison.
The court stated, "The defendant was sentenced to 2 months in prison for violating the Special Act on the Prevention of Insurance Fraud, and that judgment became final in December last year. Since that offense is in a concurrent-offense relationship with this case, we overturn the original judgment." This follows the provisions of the Criminal Act, which require consideration of proportionality in sentencing on the assumption that the two cases had been adjudicated at the same time.
The court explained the reasons for sentencing, saying, "The defendant committed this accident by driving without a license after drinking again only 7 days after his license was suspended due to a drunk-driving crackdown, so the nature of the crime is extremely poor," and "He has not been forgiven by one victim’s bereaved family, and the families are petitioning for a severe punishment."
Defendant A was detained and indicted on charges of causing the deaths of a passenger in his 20s who was riding with him and of a woman in her 60s, Defendant C, who was driving an oncoming sport utility vehicle (SUV), by crashing into the SUV while driving a Mercedes-Benz sedan after drinking alcohol on a road in Guwol-dong, Namdong-gu, Incheon, on the morning of May 8 last year. It is known that C was on her way to a military unit to pick up her soldier son who was coming out on leave that day when the accident occurred.
Despite already being in a license-suspension period after being caught for drunk driving, A drank alcohol and drove without a license with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.136%. At the time of the accident, he was driving in the wrong direction at 135.7 km/h in a section where the speed limit was 50 km/h.
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