Penalties for minors driving without a license are too lenient to pose any deterrence, resulting in an average of 40,000 cases of unlicensed driving per year, the Jing Chuan Child Safety Foundation said yesterday, after a 15-year-old crashed into an eatery in Taipei, killing three people.
The young driver, surnamed Tseng (曾), illegally drove his grandfather’s sports utility vehicle and crashed into a corner shop eatery near the Donghu (東湖) traditional market in Neihu District (內湖) on Thursday evening, killing three people and injuring two.
Tseng was brought to the Shilin District Court’s Juvenile Court Division on charges of involuntary manslaughter.
Photo copied by Cheng Ching-yi, Taipei Times
Police ruled out the possibility of Tseng driving under the influence after lab results of his blood and urine samples returned clean.
The Juvenile Court Division yesterday ruled that Tseng should be detained and sent to the Agency of Corrections’ Taipei Juvenile Detention House.
In a news release, the foundation said that underage driving without a license is an offense most often committed in cities and counties outside the six special municipalities.
Foundation statistics showed that 33.7 percent of these cases of minors driving without a license is to commute to school, 29.4 percent to work and 31.1 percent influenced by peers or other causes.
Current penalties only consist of fines and the confiscation of license plates of the vehicle involved, and do not include measures to restrict the personal freedom of offenders, the foundation said.
The lack of oversight, difficulty proving such offenses and failure to issue greater penalties for repeat offenses have caused the public to be more than willing to push their luck in terms of driving or allowing others to drive without a license, it said.
The foundation urged the government to examine how other countries deal with such offenses and adopt more severe penalties.
As offenders are mostly juveniles who are repeat offenders, the foundation suggested examining methods used in the rehabilitation of people with addictions, and employing legal methods or providing counseling to help correct such behavior.
The foundation suggested that corrective measures should include parents and peers, as these people can exert more influence over juveniles, and hopefully prevent future offenses.
The foundation also urged smaller cities and rural townships to explore ways to provide public transportation to address the root cause of unlicensed driving.
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