Publication: The Straits Times, p 32 Date: 6 January 2008 Headline: High time for stiffer laws? SMU

DRINK DRIVING Eric Lim Liang Heng, 28,deliveryman What he did: Drunk, he drove the wrong way down Tampines Expressway and crashed into another car, killing its driver. His blood alcohol level was double the legal limit What he got: Jail for 3% years and a ban on driving for 20 years.

High time Charles Lee, 30, pub owner

What he did: Suspended from driving for 18 months, he hit and killed a 79-year-old woman while speeding in an uninsured BMW in Chinatown.

for What he got: A year's jail and a 10-year driving ban. The prosecution has fled an appeal.

Su Hong. 48, businessman What he did: Driving while drunk, he hit and killed a woman with his Hyundai Sonata on Ou!mm Road and then fled the scene. What he got: Jail for 11 weeks and a five-year driving ban.

stiffer laws? ' s - 4 ~ 1 Christopher Lee, 35. MediaCorp actor

6 What he did: He was involved in a hit-and-run with a motorcycle in 2006 and failed a breathalyser test What he got: Jail for six weeks and a three-year driving ban.

Drink driving has been hogging the news, but how adequate are the laws in dealing with this increasingly

visible problem? Tan Dawn Wei reports

Benedict Goh, 37, PR executive What he did: He hit a parked car after drinking in 2006. He was iined $1,000 in 2000 for being in charge of a vehicle while under the iniluence of drink What he got: Three weeks in jail, a 6ne of $800 and a four-year driving ban.

BUSINESSMAN Su Hong, 48, lalled a woman while driving when he was drunk. His punish- ment: 11 weeks' jail and a five- year driving ban.

Pub owner Charles Lee Cheow Loong, 30, also killed someone. His punishment: a year's jail and a 10-year driving hil"

Suan Hock Kiong, 37, getai singer What he did: He failed a breathalyser test when tral3c police stopped him at 4.50am along Kallang Road last month. What he cot: $2.500 fine for drink driving i d a ban on driving for 18 months.

driving for at least a year, or longer if the court deems fit.

Drive drunk and kill some- --

He was d n m g even though he had been banned from do- so - he had been caught for dnnk d n m g before and had had hLs hcence revoked for 18 months

Drunk dnvers had the spot- hght shone on them last year, mth f d a r faces - TV actor Christopher Lee and former TV host Benedxt Goh - hauled off

What he did: He failed a breathalyser test during a police spot check along Bukit Timah Road m May last year

one and the Penal Code, which governs crime and punishment, could be thrown at you.

For causing death by rash or negligent acts not amounting to culpable homicide, you could be locked away for two years and fined.

In Su Hone's case. he Dlead-

What he got: $2,500 fine and a ban on ~ 9 r l driving for U months.

ST PHOTOS: LIM WUI LlANG ed guilty to h e e charg6s. He was sentenced to three weeks' to jail.

Penalties for driving while un- der the intluence of alcohol are causing some confusion and

too small or that sufficient pre- cautions have been taken, and therefore carries on regardless".

A negligent act is when the Demon did not foresee the con-

Smgapore's traffic laws are a 21-year-ald motorcyclist who on a par with most developed killed his pillion-riding friend. countries, which also slap man- Justice V.K. Rajah packed him datory jail sentences on recalci- off to jail for five months in- trant offenders. stead.

Drinldne and driving on Sin- The issue of whether the

imprisonment and disqualified from driving for five yeam for causing death, two weeks' im- -

concern. How heavily should a driver

be uunished if he killed some-

priso&ent and a driving ban of three years for drink driving, and eight weeks' imprisonment and a driving ban of three years for fleeing the scene.

The judge ordered the sen- tences for the first and third charges to run consecutively.

Professor Chan W i Cheong of the National University of Sin- gapore's law faculty thinks that the sentences were reasonable.

"The maximum sentences are resewed for the worst or most egregious cases," he said, adding that an egregious case could be when a person's con- duct is "p&cularly callous".

When assigning blame, the is- sue of culpability is c ~ c i a l , he noted.

A drunk driver who hits and kills someone is not the same as a murderer who has an inten- tion to kill, in which case he fat- es the mandatory death penalty.

"In all of these cases, a life has been lost, but the law aies to distinguish the cases which are more serious and deserving of greater punishment," said Prof Chan.

"At one extreme is murder and at the other extreme is caw- ing de,@ by a neghgent act."

A rash act, he explained, means that "the person can fore- see that there is a chance that the prohibited result, for exam- ple death, will occur, but thinks that it won't because the risk is

sequence, but a reasonable per- son in his shoes would have o&while in an alcoholic daze?

Some people feel that Su Hong and Charles Lee got off too lightly. The prosecution in Lee's case thinks so too, and is appealing to the higher courts.

Drunk drivers might not have set out to mow anyone down, but if they took a life or man- gled limbs or damaged proper- ty, then the punishment must fit the consequences of their acts. Or so the argument goes.

The facts after a night out on the town are not pretty Half of all drunk drivers caught in 2006 were in the 20- to 34year-old age WUP.

Drunk drivers are also mat- ing more havoc on the roads, hurting or killing 361 people in 2006 compared to 242 in 2005 and 277 in 2004. Figuces for last year are not yet available.

Depending on the kind of ha- voc wreaked. two sets of laws

gapore ma& is l i m i ~ d ~ o about laws or punishments meted out 80mg of alcohol ~ c r lOOml of are too hard-nosed or too forgiv The Derceived severitv of a

sentence also hmges on wheth- blooa. ing d always be contentio6s. er the judge orders sentences to That works out to no more Ms Manbir Lalwani, who be sewed concurrently or con- secutively, and whether a per- son pleads guilty.

Noted NUS law Professor Michael Hor: 'The traditional way of deciding on a sentence is for the law to Drovide a maxi-

than two glasses of alcohohc dnnks and 1s the same = offi- clal standards In the Un~ted States and Malayma, but more tolerant than many other coun- mes, mcludmg Japan and Inaa (both 30mg), Austraha, h c e and Hong Kong (all 50mg)

In the U ~ t e d States - whch has one of the worst dnnk dm- mg accldent rates m the devel- oped world, accounbng for 40 per cent of total traffic deaths - penalhes have been rewed up- wards

Slnce last vear anv drunk

launched advocacy group Stu- dents A g m t Dnnk Dnmg m 2006, thmks that drunk dnvers are purushed enough

Sad the creatlve hector of an ad agency. "What the offend- ers have to go through, the mem- ory they have to hve m*, that itself IS already a blg punish- ment "

But emergency physic~an Zulkamm Ab Hamid wants mandatory jml sentences for those arrested for drmk dnmg

"In Smgapore, we're only de- terred by shff penalhes The on- ly way IS for you to up the ante Make it harsh for dnnk dnvers and send a strong message that we don't condone tlus," he sad

As a doctor at an accident and emergency hospital mut, he has seen hLs fam share of man- gled lunbs from traffic acci dents

"The reaettable t h m ~ IS

mum penalty and for the courts to exercise a discretion to tailor a ounishment suitable for the of- f e k e and offender.

"We have no reason to be- lieve that that is not working sat- isfactorily for drink driving."

Besides, recent revisions to the Penal Code also included u p ping the jail term for causing death by a rash act from two to five years.

Legal experts are not in fa- vour of introducing stiffer pun- ishments for drink driving.

Said Prof Hor: "It must be re- membered that once penalties are raised, they alniost never come down, for then it is feared that it might 'send the wrong sig- nal'.

person in FloXda koived m a hit-and-run resulting in death faces mandatory l~nsonrnen t of two years

The country also has a zero tolerance law for those under the age of 21 Youngsters caught tanked up could face a dnmg ban of two years m some states, and even possible Imprison- ment of up to one year

The younger set m Smgapore can stdl unb~be and dnve But the courts have mgnalled that youthful abandon n no excuse

Last November, an appeals judge set as~de a probation or- der gwen by a -ct judge for

govern dnnk driving cases: the Road Traffic A n and the Penal Code.

Fail a breathalyser test at a ~olice roadblock and it's a maxi- such tragic 'situations are &oid

able. The moment you step into mum $5,000 fme or a siu-month ,jail term for the drunk reveller. " R a i s i i punishments or mak-

ing certam ~unishments manda- a car, you are perfectly aware of the consequences of your ac- tions, so there is no excuse," he said.

Second-he and subsequent offenders can be fined up to $10,000, and be imprisoned for up to 12 months. All offenders will also be disqualified from

to& should-be a very last resort, for the risk is great that domg so WID send pebple to or keep people m jad needlessly."

Penalty poser: 11 weeks' jail for killer driver vs 9% years' jail for burglar A DRINK driver who killed a driving bans and killing innocent Said National University of said. Like whether someone has a pedestrian gets 11 weeks behind bars pedestrians? How do you hl&fy the S i o r e law professor Michael HOE stzing of previous convictions for and a &year driving ban. The next discrepancy?" asked retired bank we compare harms, one might similar offences, and the value of the day, a burglar who broke into 40 deer Kow Yew San. readily conclude that the death of a loss amount premises is given 9% in jail and But there are many factom a human being is more seriou8 than The burglar, Shaslularan

24 strokes of the cane. sentencing judge takes into account property loss, but if we he into -, 42, faced a total of 43

This seeming disparity in the and the public may not always have account the mental culP ability, the ehages, pomted out NUS law

had some people seeing red, the full picture, said Singapore academic Chan Wing Cheong. Management University law professor picture is less clear. What if the death These were mostly for

and several letters to the Forum page chandra ~ ~ h ~ ~ , was unintended and unforesken, but houseb rew and the^ by night - recently. And comparing crimes isn't as that ProPerbr loss was delikate and whch comes with a mandatory

"Ig housebreakmg a more serious sunple as just weighmg the penalties calculated9" nunimum sentence of two years' jail. cnme than drink driving, defying meted out There are other dimens~ons, he He also had 48 previous convictions.

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