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Car racing, drunk-driving face harsher penalties

By Zheng Jinran (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2010-12-21 14:28

China's top legislature said it will continue discussing a draft amendment to the Criminal Law, which proposes harsher punishment for drivers involved in car racing and drunk-driving, according to news.xinhuanet.com reported on Dec 20.

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The Standing Committee of the National People's Congress is reading, for the second time, a draft amendment to the Criminal Law during its bimonthly session, Dec 20–25. It said drivers involved in car racing, which have caused "serious consequences," and drunk drivers would be detained and fined.

The statistics said in 2009, about 313,000 cases involved in driving under the influence of alcohol were investigated in China. Though accidents triggered by drink-driving and their death toll have decreased from the previous year, car racing and drunk-driving are still listed by the public as the top two road killers.

Zhao Bingzhi, dean of Law School at Beijing Normal University, said, "Driving under the influence of alcohol and car racing are highly dangerous to pedestrians' safety, and it's not enough to punish those drivers after serious accidents."

Drivers will be charged with dangerous driving if they are caught drunk driving or racing cars and be handed harsher punishments in this Criminal Law amendment, which would give drivers a warning before accidents occur, and could effectively prevent such tragedies, Zhao added.