"The fundamental purpose of Yoon Chang-ho's law is to revolutionize the consciousness of drunk driving, because drunk driving can be eliminated only when you drink and drive, and you can kill someone. Many people feel that the Korean people's awareness of drunk driving has changed greatly.
November 29, 2018 National Assembly, Plenary Session

The sad death of a young man in his twenties, the appeal of law revision of friends, the National Blue House of Cheong Wa Dae, the passage and execution of the 'Yoon Chang Ho Act' ... The development after 'drinking murder' took place in September 2018 was a drama, Seemed. Is the spirit of the Yoon Chang-ho Act properly implemented in one year after the law revision?

The SBS Data Journalism Team [Favorite] checked the data on how the Yoon Chang-ho Act, which had been in operation for a year after the report last September, was effective.
[Favorite] collected the judgment of the criminal trial first trial of a drunk driver who died after a period of one year before and after the enforcement of the Yoon Changho Act. As of December 18, 2018, when the 1st Yoon Chang-ho Act took effect, the rulings occurred one year before and one year after.

Laws applicable to drunk driving traffic accidents usually include the Road Traffic Act, the Traffic Accident Handling Special Act, and the Act on Weighted Punishment of Specific Crimes. After searching by words such as 'drink driving', 'death', 'dangerous driving fatality', and 'traffic accident handling', the contents of each judgment were checked and the cases meeting the criteria were selected.

The analysis subject thus confirmed was 137 cases before death (144 deaths) -39 cases after implementation (40 deaths). Although there are only 346 drunk driving fatalities in 2018, the number of judgments is relatively small, and it seems that there are not many fatalities among drunk drivers themselves. In the post-analysis analysis, the trial was still in progress, excluding accidents whose rulings were not disclosed.

● The Yoon Chang-ho Act is like this.
Yoon Chang-ho's law, named after the late Yoon Chang-ho, was killed in a drunk driving car in Busan in September 2018. One passed the National Assembly's plenary session on November 29, 2018, `` The First Yoon Chang Ho Act '' (Act on Amended Punishment for Specific Crimes Revised, etc.) that went into effect on December 18, 2018, and the other passed December 7, 2019. The Second Yoon Changho Act (Revised Road Traffic Act) was enacted from 25 June.

The 1st Yoon Chang-ho Act states that Article 11 of 11 (Dangerous driving fatality) means that if a person is injured in a state in which normal driving is difficult due to drinking or drug effects, he or she is sentenced to imprisonment of less than 10 years or 5 million won. If a person dies at "1 year or more and 15 years or less, or 10 million won", he or she is amended from "1 year or more to imprisonment" to "weapon or more than 3 years in prison". In other words, the First Yun Chang-ho Act is a law that allows a prisoner to be sentenced to death without a fine, and even a maximum of three years in prison.

The second Yoon Changho Act is to reduce the blood alcohol concentration, which is the drinking standard for which driving is prohibited, from "0.05%" to "0.03%". In addition, it extends the period of disqualification for revocation of driving due to drunk driving and raises the level of penalty for drunk driving itself.

● The law is fixed to strengthen punishment.
In the early morning of September 6, 2018, a drunk driver raced at Yeoju, Gyeonggi-do at speeds of over 100 km / h and crashed into the river after receiving bridge railings. The woman in her 20s died. On March 19 last year, Paju, Gyeonggi-do, also died at the dawn of the car drove the drunk driver into the road boundary stone and power poles. The blood alcohol level of the front driver was 0.120%, the rear driver was 0.167%, and the front driver was the first offender. The former driver did not have a record, but the latter driver agreed with the victim's survivor. Both victims drunk with the driver and rode in the car. The accident occurred before and after the enforcement of the First Yoon Changho Act, which strengthened the punishment of drunk driving death accidents. The court sentenced the former driver to three years in prison and the next driver to three years in probation for one year and six months in prison.

Just comparing two cases does not mean that sentences have been reduced since the implementation of the First Yoon Changho Act. It is also possible that there is a difference in circumstances that are not fully contained in each judgment. Therefore, [Function] looked at the entire judgment of drunk driving death accident that can be analyzed at this point before and after the implementation of the First Yoon Chang Ho Act. What difference did you see?

● Execution rate and sentence decreased after the Yoon Changho Act

Imprisonment was sentenced for all incidents analyzed. There was no fine.

In the one-year (2017.12.18 ~ 2018.12.17, occurrence) decision, it was 58.4% (80 cases) and 41.6% (57 cases) of probation. On the other hand, one year after implementation (December 18, 2018 to December 19, 2019), the sentence was 46.2% (18 cases) and probation 53.8% (21 cases). Death accidents caused by drunk driving were common to all accidents, but since the implementation of the First Yoon Changho Act, the percentage of sentenced to death was rather reduced.

There was no significant difference in the sentence. However, it showed a slight decrease after the implementation of the First Yoon Changho Act. Execution sentences ranged from 6 months up to 96 months and 32.4 months on average, and 8 months, 72 months and 31.7 months on average. The average sentence of sentence sentenced after the implementation of the First Yoon Chang-ho Act decreased for 0.7 months.

In probation, the average sentence of imprisonment before execution was 15.6 months and 20.9 months after implementation. The period of probation was 29.1 months and 35.4 months, and sentence of sentence increased after the First Yoon Changho Act.

What was the blood alcohol level of the driver who died? Before the implementation of the 1st Yoon Changho Act, the average of both execution and probation were 0.123%, and after implementation, the average was 0.130%. Blood alcohol concentrations are also higher than those who died after the First Yoon Changho Act.

● 'Yun Chang-ho Law' 1 year ... why did it come to this?
2nd half of 2018. Criticisms of drunk driving, particularly deaths, which could be called drinking alcohol, were heightened. The government and the parliament were forced to move. It was the 'Yun Chang Ho Law' that passed with the support of the whole people. Why did this result?

The number of drunk driving accidents and detections is steadily decreasing. In 2014, the number of drunk driving cases, which amounted to 250,000 cases in 2014 alone, dropped to almost half of 120,000 cases in November. Even if the number of caught driving is reduced, this is not wrong. Nevertheless, the results of the judgment analysis before and after the enforcement of the law raise questions about what the Yoon Changho Act was designed and implemented for. More than 200 people died from drunk driving deaths between January and November 2019.

One explanation is that the sentencing standards for traffic crimes, such as drunk driving accidents, have not yet changed. On November 28, 2018, at the Congressional Judicial Judicial Committee meeting held prior to the passage of the Yoon Changho Law, Assemblyman Chae Lee said, "I think the sentencing standards in the Supreme Court are very low." . Even if the law was revised, the sentencing standard may not have changed since the sentencing standard has not changed. The 7th Supreme Court's sentencing committee, launched in May last year, has announced that it will revise the criteria for the transfer of traffic crimes by reflecting the Yoon Chang-ho law until April 2020, when the first half of the term ends.

If the sentencing standard changes in 2020, will the Yoon Chang-ho law be effective? Is there any other reason? I will continue in the next episode, "Yoon Chang-ho Law 1 year ... drinking defecation accidents."

By Shim Young-gu (so5what@sbs.co.kr)
By Jung Hye-kyung (choice@sbs.co.kr)
Byewoon Bae, Reporter & Analyst (woons@sbs.co.kr)
Ahn Hye-min, Reporter & Analyst (hyeminan@sbs.co.kr)
Ahn Jun-seok Designer (ahnjoonseok@sbs.co.kr)
Kim Min Ah Designer (naeklee@naver.com)