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When you try to drive after drinking alcohol, it is being discussed how to make sure that the vehicle is equipped with a device that prevents the engine from starting at all. In Europe and some parts of the United States, this system is already being operated for repeat offenders of drunk driving. There are also high voices in Korea that it is necessary to prevent drunk driving, but there are also problems that need to be solved realistically.
Reporter Han Seung-gu pointed out.
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[Witness: How much (hard) you get, the power pole will be like that. Didn't you
drink
?] A
6-year-old aunt died after being hit by a streetlight that fell down by a drunk vehicle.
The streetlight was put back on the spot, but my mother collapsed again.
[The late Lee's mother (the 26th of last month): I am a mother who is a sinner who could not protect her child. I have to live my whole life in the pain of losing my child.] In
order to prevent drunk driving, punishment has been strengthened and crackdown standards have been lowered.
A device that detects the driving route and the driver's gaze with a sensor to warn some of them, and some vehicles at daycare centers have a breathalyzer device.
[Song Ae-soon/President of the daycare center: You have to check what happened because the driver blows at the time the vehicle leaves. I took a drink measurement on a few days in a month and at what time, and I keep popping up to see if it is normal or not.]
But last year, the number of drinking crackdowns decreased slightly due to the corona and other factors, but the number of drinking accidents increased.
In particular, nearly half of those caught are habitual drunk drivers.
30% higher than the recidivism rate of drug offenders.
So, recently, there has been a plan that allows repeat offenders of drunk driving to attach a device that activates only after blowing and passing the breathalyzer.
There is also a function to take pictures so that no one else can blow them for you, and to re-measure between them.
[Park Kwang-hee/manufacturer's representative: A request for re-measurement comes out randomly during operation. If the re-measurement fails, the car stops immediately and the beacon lights or flashes. .] After a
public hearing this month, we are aiming to pass the bill next month, and we plan to pilot 500 units first from next year.
First of all, public opinion is friendly.
In a poll conducted by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, 95% of them agreed, and 80% of them answered that it is necessary to expand the device to include passenger and freight vehicles, and children's commuting vehicles.
Currently, 25 states in the U.S. and more than 10 countries in Europe are operating start-stop devices against repeaters of drunk driving.
There was also a controversy over whether the government should bear the cost of operating the device, which is about 2.5 million won per unit per year.
[Yoonho Lee/Director of the Citizens' Association for Safe Living Practices: (Research results) If you invest 1 dollar, it is worth 3 dollars for the first offender. In addition, if you include the second offender, there is a preventive effect of up to $7, socially.]
You also have to decide how many times you want the device to be sweetened, how long it will be sweetened, and so on.
(Video coverage: Kim Tae-hoon, video editing: Lee So-young, VJ: Jeong Han-wook, writer: Kim Yu-mi, CG: Hong Seong-yong, Choi Jae-young, Lee Ye-jeong, Seong Jae-eun, Jeong Si-won)