Prosecutors get tough as drunk driving accidents increase

Police test drivers for drunk driving at a street in Suwon in April. [YONHAP]

Starting next month, prosecutors will increasingly seek a warrant allowing them to confiscate the vehicles of drunken drivers, especially when serious crimes have been committed.

According to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Wednesday, the vehicles that will be seized include those that are owned by repeat offenders or killing someone while driving under the influence.

Repeated offenders are those that had been caught three times within the last five years and those that had been caught twice but caused serious injuries.

The prosecutors' office said it will aggressively seek a seizure warrant against the vehicle particularly when it involves the death of multiple people, when the driver flees the scene, or if the driver is a repeated offender.

It will also cooperate with the police in seizing vehicles that were used as a tool in committing a crime at the preliminary stage of the investigation.

The office will continue to appeal to courts if they refuse to issue the warrant.

The move is in response to some high-profile drunk driving accidents over the last two years as Covid-19 restrictions that were in place since 2020 were loosened. The restrictions were completely lifted from May onwards after the government declared Covid-19 an endemic.

According to the National Police Agency, 130,283 drunk drivers were caught last year, the first time the number exceeded 130,000 since 2019. In 2020 and 2021, when Covid-19 emerged and spread across the world, the number fell to around 110,000.

Last year, the number of accidents caused by drunk driving was 15,059, compared to 14,894 in 2021.

The number of people that were either injured or killed has also been increasing.

Last year 24,261 people were injured in drunk driving accidents, an increase from 2021's 23,653 number. The number of people killed rose from 206 in 2021 to 214 last year.

Some 42 percent of drunk drivers who were caught were repeat offenders.

The prosecutors’ office pointed out that decreased awareness against drunk driving, particularly after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions, led to fatal accidents.

In December a drunk driver passing through an elementary school in Gangnam around 5 p.m. ran over a nine-year-old boy, instantly killing him. The driver parked his car at his apartment near the school and came to the crime scene, but claimed he wasn’t aware that he hit a person.

In April, a drunken driver's vehicle swerved into four elementary students after losing control while making a left-hand turn, killing a nine-year-old girl. The accident happened at 2 p.m. on a Saturday.

A 20-year-old woman, who was going to work, was hit and killed by a drunken driver, in Ulsan that same month at 7 a.m.

The police will step up its crackdown against drunk driving, particularly next month and in August as vacation season starts.

BY LEE HO-JEONG [lee.hojeong@joongang.co.kr]