The Constitutional Court has ruled that a legal provision mandating harsher punishment for drivers caught drunk driving three or more times does not violate the Constitution.
According to legal sources on the 1st, the Constitutional Court decided on the 27th that a provision of the Road Traffic Act that imposes heavier penalties if the ban on drunk driving is violated three or more times does not violate the Constitution, with all nine justices in unanimous agreement.
A person surnamed Jo was sentenced in Jan. 2015 to eight months in prison, suspended for two years, for drunk driving. In Nov. 2017, the person received 10 months in prison, suspended for two years, for the same offense. If a person drives drunk two or more times, their driver's license is revoked and they cannot obtain a new license for two years.
Jo drove drunk around 12:15 a.m. on Aug. 29, 2018, in Gimhae, South Gyeongsang, over a distance of about 30 meters from a convenience store to a bakery. The person was unlicensed at the time, and the blood alcohol concentration was 0.153%, indicating a state of severe intoxication.
Jo was indicted in Aug. 2023 on charges of driving a car again while intoxicated after violating the drunk driving ban under the Road Traffic Act two or more times. For the first and second drunk driving offenses, the person received suspended prison sentences, but this time a prison term could be imposed. Jo then requested a constitutional review, and the court accepted the request.
The Constitutional Court said, "A person who repeatedly violates the drunk driving ban three or more times can be seen as markedly lacking in law-abiding awareness of traffic regulations or safety consciousness, regardless of the degree of intoxication," and noted, "It is hard to say the legislature exceeded its discretion even if statutory penalties are not subdivided based on factors such as blood alcohol concentration."
Punishments for drunk driving have been strengthened. In the past, it was called the "three-strikes-out system for drunk driving," with harsher penalties for three or more offenses. With the implementation of the so-called "Yoon Chang-ho Act" in Dec. 2018, it was strengthened to impose heavier penalties for two or more drunk driving offenses.
In Nov. 2021, the Constitutional Court ruled that imposing heavier penalties for two or more offenses without a time limit violated the principle of proportionality between responsibility and punishment. The law was later revised, and since Jul. 2023, if a person is caught again within 10 years from the date a sentence of a fine or heavier penalty for drunk driving is finalized, they face harsher punishment.