Drink driving should be treated as a crime regardless of whether the driver causes a crash, a panel of legal experts has told the country's top court.
The Supreme People's Court invited the experts to put forward suggestions on drink driving at a meeting last Friday, following heated debate about loopholes in the legal system.
The majority of the panel believed that motorists who were over the legal blood- alcohol limit "disrespect the lives of others" and that their behavior is "indirectly intentional", Wang Zuofu, deputy director of the research center on criminal law at Beijing Law Society, told China Daily yesterday.
The SPC is considering the panel's suggestion, Wang said.
Drink driving is currently considered a violation of traffic rules and drivers can only be detained for up to 15 days if they do not cause an accident, which many believe is the primary reason why drink driving has been on the rise.
If listed as a crime under criminal law, drink drivers would face judicial charges.
Last week, Sun Weiming, who was drunk and did not have a driving license when he killed four people and injured one in Sichuan province last year, was handed a death sentence by the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court after being found guilty of endangering public safety.
