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Updated Wednesday, April 28, 2010 6:40 pm TWN, The China Post news staff |
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Penalties are too lenient for drunk drivers who killThe fact that the two celebrities involved did not run from the scene may have helped them avoid jail time and both paid compensation, NT$8 million and NT$3 million respectively. But while paying compensation to a victim's family is a good way of demonstrating remorse, it cannot be a deciding factor when one takes a life. A murderer who pays even hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation is not allowed to skip a lengthy prison term. Drunk drivers who kill should be viewed as a kind of murderer. It's not a tragic “accident” when a drunk driver kills or maims; it's essentially a premeditated crime. Drivers know the law. No driver is forced to consume alcohol — it's a choice and all choices have consequences. It seems clear that Taiwan's judicial system must increase the maximum penalties for causing death or serious injury while driving drunk. Taiwan doesn't necessarily have to follow the lead of the United States in all things, but a move towards U.S. law with regard to drunk driving might be a good move to consider. California — now being followed by a number of other U.S. states — charges some drunk drivers who take a life with second-degree murder punishable by a very long sentence. In the UK, the maximum term for such an offense is 14 years. Killing someone, even in a drunk driving “accident,” should generally end with the killer spending a reasonably long term locked up away from society. Harsh punishments for drunk drivers are necessary to convince the public that the government takes the issue seriously. To their credit, Taiwan's lawmakers recently strengthened laws on drunk driving. Fines have been substantially increased and police spot checks are now set up more regularly. But local laws need to change if two and half years in prison or a couple million N.T. are the only penalties for needlessly terminating a human life. The public's outrage at this short sentence request can and should be channeled into a push to modify existing laws so that no one — rich or poor, powerfully connected or not — can evade serving a significant jail term for causing serious injury or death while driving under the influence. Comments April 28, 2010 elumpen@ I doubt it, mstai. The guy is obviously a complete scumbag if he even tried to lie his way out of it - knowing, as he must have done, that Taiwan's drunk-driving laws are a joke and he wouldn't have pretty much got away with it regardless. I seem to recall, though, that UK law was changed so that people who commit crimes abroad can be prosecuted in the UK. Not sure how that works in practice, but this nasty piece of work seems a prime candidate.The article is spot-on, but it misses a more crucial point: in Taiwan, cars have more rights than people. It's perfectly OK to kill or injure someone with a car because, hey, cars, like, contribute to the economy, and, er, stuff (such is the quality of the arguments usually deployed to make the point). This is true regardless of whether you are drunk or not. I once had to pay compensation to a taxi driver who knocked me off my scooter because I scuffed his paintwork as my flesh came into contact with his vehicle. When the law works like that, it's no surprise that killing people with your car is considered no more serious than er .. well, come to think of it, hacking people to death with a meat-cleaver tends not to attract much of a prison sentence, either. Maybe there just aren't enough spaces in the jails. July 2, 2010 JohnAdams@ I think the China Post is missing the point here. Yes, different countries have different degrees of sentencing for crimes, but the point is, NO ONE in the history of Taiwan has ever received a sentence of 2.5 years for this kind of crime in Taiwan. That's just simple racism. Why should a foreign national be given a stiffer sentence than a local? And in terms of your claim that prosecutors have an air tight case, you've clearly got your facts wrong. The prosecutors in Taiwan are easily influenced by criminal gangs and dodgy police officers. The fact is that the KTV owners are criminals and they are working in collusion with the police at Da An, just look at their track record (sex trade, drug trade and illegal gambling allegations). May 7, 2011 Julia_c_1977@ The fact is, that Dean is already a previously convicted criminal, in Great Britain and Taiwan, and he tries to lie his way out of this case. Of course he shall be punished very harshly. According to Susan Hawkings, a British female reporter of the Edinborough Journal (Scotland), the complete Pakistani family of Dean, his parents, his brothers and sister, his cousins are well know to the police and the prosecution office of Edinborough for multiple similar crimes like stealing, selling drugs, driving drunken, fraud, attempted rape. Insulting the Christian society in Edinborough with Muslim motivated hatred and violence. I sincerely hope that the judge in charge of this case knows what to do with this guy..... | |||||||||||||
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He knows that he got off the hook but will live for the rest of his life with the ponderous thought that he took away another life while driving intoxicated.