Another ridiculous acquittal for a drunk driver last week yet again exposes the ineptness of some judges in Taiwan and their inexplicable tendency to side with offenders.
After numerous attempts to clamp down on drunk driving, last week’s ruling has the potential to set a terrifying precedent that drunk driving is simply not a crime, because one is not in control of their actions when drunk.
The accused, a woman surnamed Huang (黃), was charged with drunk driving and fleeing the scene of a crash in Tainan on Dec. 22 last year in which she hit a scooter, knocking a mother and daughter to the ground. The daughter fractured a clavicle and sustained scratches, while the mother sustained minor injuries. Huang continued driving and hit a parked vehicle about 450m farther along the road.
Tests showed that Huang had a blood-alcohol concentration of 1.55 milligrams per liter (mg/l), more than 10 times the legal limit.
This is serious and reckless behavior, but it seems that society does not really care unless there is a fatality, leaving “dinosaur judges” to quietly make logic-defying rulings that are a slap in the face to the people who are affected and to the justice system.
The arguments of the defense were absurd and flat out condoned drunk driving. Lawyer Mai Yu-wei (麥玉煒) said that Huang was incapacitated and “was not in control of her actions, and thus could not have deliberately attempted to flee the scene of a crash.”
Mai presented evidence that a blood-alcohol level of 0.311mg/l or higher puts people in a semi-conscious or unconscious state, leading to a loss of bodily functions.
This is precisely why drunk driving is illegal.
While that should be common knowledge, Huang should be acutely aware of the rules, because she has previously been convicted of the same offense.
Notwithstanding how drunk she was and whether she was aware of the crash, the crux of the issue is her decision to drink wine before getting behind the wheel.
Astonishingly, the judge agreed with Mai and acquitted Huang of driving under the influence (DUI) and fleeing the scene of a crash. She was sentenced to four months in prison for offenses against public safety, which is commutable to a fine.
The lesson this ruling teaches is that if you are going to drive after drinking, get as drunk as possible so that if you hit someone, your lawyer can argue that you were not aware of the situation.
This ruling is disturbingly similar to another acquittal last year involving a man who stabbed his mother 37 times and beheaded her while under the influence of amphetamines. He was initially acquitted for the same reason: “He was not in control of his actions at the time of the incident due to drug-induced psychosis.”
The prosecution appealed and the case went to the Supreme Court, where the man last month was sentenced to life in prison. The prosecution also plans to appeal in the Huang case.
Hopefully, a more reasonable verdict will be reached that actually holds her accountable.
After stiffer punishments were implemented in July 2019, fatalities from drunk driving incidents in the nation only dropped from 5,230 to 5,056 the following year. This shows that there is still a lot to be done to stop such behavior — and letting people off the hook does not help.
The recent passing of Taiwanese actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), known to many as “Big S,” due to influenza-induced pneumonia at just 48 years old is a devastating reminder that the flu is not just a seasonal nuisance — it is a serious and potentially fatal illness. Hsu, a beloved actress and cultural icon who shaped the memories of many growing up in Taiwan, should not have died from a preventable disease. Yet her death is part of a larger trend that Taiwan has ignored for too long — our collective underestimation of the flu and our low uptake of the
For Taipei, last year was a particularly dangerous period, with China stepping up coercive pressures on Taiwan amid signs of US President Joe Biden’s cognitive decline, which eventually led his Democratic Party to force him to abandon his re-election campaign. The political drift in the US bred uncertainty in Taiwan and elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region about American strategic commitment and resolve. With America deeply involved in the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the last thing Washington wanted was a Taiwan Strait contingency, which is why Biden invested in personal diplomacy with China’s dictator Xi Jinping (習近平). The return of
Actress Barbie Hsu (徐熙媛), known affectionately as “Big S,” recently passed away from pneumonia caused by the flu. The Mandarin word for the flu — which translates to “epidemic cold” in English — is misleading. Although the flu tends to spread rapidly and shares similar symptoms with the common cold, its name easily leads people to underestimate its dangers and delay seeking medical treatment. The flu is an acute viral respiratory illness, and there are vaccines to prevent its spread and strengthen immunity. This being the case, the Mandarin word for “influenza” used in Taiwan should be renamed from the misleading
Following a YouTuber’s warning that tens of thousands of Taiwanese have Chinese IDs, the government launched a nationwide probe and announced that it has revoked the Republic of China (Taiwan) citizenship of three Taiwanese who have Chinese IDs. Taiwanese rapper Pa Chiung (八炯) and YouTuber Chen Po-yuan (陳柏源) in December last year released a documentary showing conversations with Chinese “united front” related agency members and warned that there were 100,000 Taiwanese holding Chinese IDs. In the video, a Taiwanese named Lin Jincheng (林金城), who is wanted for fraud in Taiwan and has become the head of the Taiwan Youth Entrepreneurship Park
RSS