Tougher Punishments For Drunk Drivers

[Mulboyne]

A group of six returning from a gokon party last October have been fined for drunk driving according to this report (Japanese). What's unusual is that the total fine amounted to 1,400,000 yen which is rare for one car. The driver was fined 300,000 yen as was the owner of the car who was also a passenger. The remaining four passengers were each fined 200,000 yen. It probably didn't help that the driver at first tried to escape from the police patrol car.

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Japan Today: Bar owner busted for serving alcohol to driver in first such arrest

This article claims that a different case was the first arrest under the new law. The owner has just been convicted:

Asahi: Restaurant operator convicted for serving drinks before fatal traffic accident

A district court here Thursday convicted a restaurant operator for continuing to serve alcohol to a customer who later caused a drunken driving traffic accident that killed two people. The Saitama District Court sentenced Hiroaki Okubo, 45, to two years in prison, suspended for five years, for violating the revised Road Traffic Law. "Okubo did not stop the customer from driving a car despite knowing that the customer was heavily drunk," Presiding Judge Yoshifumi Otani said. "Okubo continued to offer alcohol to the customer in order to obtain profits with the sale of the drinks. The motive for offering alcohol is selfish ... and his criminal responsibility is big."

In March, Okubo became the first individual indicted on charges of violating a stipulation in the revised Road Traffic Law that holds responsible those who offer alcohol to people who cause drunken driving accidents. The revised law, which took effect in September last year, was brought about by a different fatal traffic accident in Fukuoka in 2006. According to the ruling, Okubo served alcohol, such as beer and shochu, to Kiyoshi Tamagawa, 32, an unemployed man, for about five hours from around 1:30 p.m. at the restaurant in Kumagaya, north of here. Okubo and Tamagawa had been golfing partners. After leaving Okubo's restaurant around 6:30 p.m., Tamagawa began to drive a car. At 7:25 p.m., he veered into the opposite lane and collided with two minicars. The accident killed a married couple and injured six others, including two in Tamagawa's car. Tamagawa also suffered serious injuries.

Tamagawa has been indicted on charges of dangerous driving resulting in death and injury. Prosecutors said Okubo offered at least one bottle of beer and eight cups of shochu mixed with oolong tea. When Tamagawa was leaving the restaurant, Okubo told Tamagawa, "Be careful," according to prosecutors. "Okubo knew that Tamagawa did not call a taxi nor arrange for an alternative driver," the judge said. "He did not take action to stop Tamagawa from driving a car while under the influence of alcohol." After leaving the restaurant, however, Tamagawa stopped his car in a parking lot. While driving the car again to kill time until a different restaurant opened, he caused the fatal accident.

Noting that Tamagawa once stopped his car, the judge said, "We cannot find evidence that showed Okubo offered alcohol with the foresight that Tamagawa might end up driving recklessly." He suspended the prison term, saying, "Okubo is deeply reflecting on what he did." After the ruling, family members of the two who died in the fatal accident, Yoshimasa Ozawa and his wife, Masae, both 56, expressed their dissatisfaction with the suspended sentence. "The death of family members in a traffic accident is the same as that in a murder case," said Katsunori Ozawa, 31, the couple's son. "The court's decision made us think what is the point of having prison sentences if they are not imposed." The family asked prosecutors to appeal the sentence to a high court.

[Mulboyne]

Yomiuri: Drunk-driving accidents halve in 2 years

Drunk-driving accidents dropped in 2007 to about half the number recorded in 2005, but the number of arrests for drunk driving has remained about the same, according a National Police Agency survey. Since a drunk-driving accident killed three children in Fukuoka in August 2006, penalties against driving while intoxicated have been strengthened, resulting in a drop in the number of accidents, the NPA said. According to the NPA, there were 7,558 accidents caused by drunk drivers in 2007, a drop of 46 percent from the 13,875 recorded in 2005. From January to June this year, 3,057 such accidents occurred, a decrease of 22 percent from the same period last year. During the six months, there were 132 drunk driving-related fatalities, 90 fewer than in the first half of last year. T

he Fukuoka accident prompted the government to revise the Road Traffic Law last September. The revised law established penalties for those who offer alcohol or vehicles to people found to be driving while drunk, effectively involving not only drivers but also people who aided or abetted drunk driving. Last year, 5,622 people were arrested on suspicion of drunk driving, showing no substantial change from the 5,661 marked in 2005. The NPA said one factor is that the police have cracked down harder on drunk driving. However, even in Fukuoka, where the municipal government has increased its efforts against the offense, three municipal government employees have faced drunk driving charges in the two years since the fatal accident.

[Greji]

Yomiuri: Drunk-driving accidents halve in 2 years

I couldn't believe that arrests have not changed. As someone who has a vast and well researched knowledge of drunks, most of my mates won't touch the wheel now with the new laws in place.

The arrest figures must include those who were arrested along with the drunk drivers. Those riding in the cars, those who served the dude, or someone who had loaned his car to a drunk.

Everyone I know or hear about is scared shitless of all the extra drunk checks and random spot checks that have so greatly increased since the crack-down began. 8:00 P.M. used to be consider the truce. You could have a beer after work and leave before eight and you were okay. After eight they would begin the active checks.

The fellows don't even trust that anymore and the fines don't make it worth the gamble.

Obviously, there are those that no matter what is said an done, they're going to drive (Hell, I'm to drunk to walk, I gotta drive home}. You'll never change that crew until they're caught, or unfortunately, kill somebody. But, back to the original statement, I can't see why the arrests are not falling unless maybe they're beefing up the figures with the incidentals. Maybe someone who is sober could enlighten me.....

[Kuang_Grade]

Gegji, folks don't get more sober than me, so I'll give it a go.

You are assuming their is a strong correlation between the reported accidents and arrests...while one would logically think this, that doesn't mean it is actually the case. It is possible the people who were likely to have accidents were the the types less likely to be ever be arrested in the first place due to their location/habits (esp city vs country)...one would have to look at the timing and locations of accidents/arrests to see where the change was really happening. It also may be a classification issue as well...did other types of accidents, such as hit and run, go up? Or as you point out, there is certain number of 'dead enders' that will never change, and they might be the group that is most likely to be arrested while the larger population of more influencable/sensible people are now scared off by the new penalties and that's impacting the accident rate. So their could be drunk driver population A that clearly scream out 'arrest me' when driving while drunk driver population B usually isn't blatant enough to be noticed by the cops but still blitzed enough to cause accidents. If the new penalties scare off population B but not population A, the numbers as reported may make sense.

Or maybe the cops have a certain number in mind that they think is enough and once they reach that goal, they back off on active enforcement, so year to year the number doesn't change that much regardless of how many people are actually drinking and driving.

[Big Booger]

Where are the fucking cars that won't start without a breath sample showing a clean system? You always hear about this technology that should prevent most drunk drivers but you seldom see it put into production lines. Is it just bullshit or are they ever going to get this shit out on the road?:ninja2:

[Greji]

Gegji, folks don't get more sober than me, so I'll give it a go.

Remind me never to drink with you.

It's just that with all the increased surveillance on the roads, I just found it interesting that the arrest toll did significantly increase. Having said that, thinking about the way they use stats and graphs over here, it's had to know what is the truth and what the exact total really is.

[Mulboyne]

Kyodo via Japan Today: Over 1,200 people caught for aiding drunk driving under revised law

More than 1,200 people were caught and 72 arrested by police for allegedly aiding drunk driving in the one year since the Road Traffic Law was toughened in September last year, the National Police Agency said Thursday. The number of accidents involving drunk driving and the number of drunk-driving cases during the same period both decreased by more than 20 percent from a year earlier, it said. Following a spate of fatal accidents involving drunk driving, the government revised the law by making it a crime to aid drunk driving, as well as by toughening punishments for drunk drivers. Of the 1,268 people caught for allegedly violating the revised law, 954 either asked for or demanded a ride in a car, knowing that the driver was drunk. Forty-six of them were arrested. The agency said 221 people were caught for allegedly letting a drunk driver drive a vehicle and 19 of them were arrested. Ninety-three people were found to have either provided alcohol to a driver or encouraged a driver to drink alcohol. Of the 93, seven were arrested. Police caught 1,016 people for allegedly taking the wheel while their driving ability was impaired from alcohol and arrested 728 of them.

[Behan]

I wonder how far the responsibility for 'letting' someone drive drunk can go?

If your drunk friend tried to get in a car do they expect you to do something like clobbering him/her over the head with one of the empty bottles?

A group of six returning from a gokon party last October have been fined for drunk driving acc

So if any of them got married, would it be safe to call it a:

Car-Sex-less marriage?

buwahahahahaha

Too much coffee this morning.

[Mulboyne]

Mainichi: Drunk drivers will be required to show daily alcohol intake over month to get license back

Drivers who had their license nullified due to drunken driving will be required to submit a month-long diary detailing their daily alcohol consumption, it has been learned. The National Police Agency (NPA) will introduce a special program aimed at rehabilitating offenders of drunken driving regulations, with a trial program set to begin in Tokyo and three other prefectures this fall before nationwide implementation in 2013. Under the program, offenders of drunken driving regulations will be required to keep a diary for a month and receive counseling with the aim that they will not drive under the influence of alcohol again in the future. Subjects in the trial program will be monitored for any further violations in order to examine the effectiveness of the program. With the current system, those who had their driver's license revoked are required to take an aptitude test and attend training sessions using real cars for two days, which takes 13 hours in total. The content of the aptitude test and the training sessions are the same regardless of what kind of traffic violations they committed.

The new program, meanwhile, is specifically targeted at violators of drunken driving regulations and will include a screening test that examines the violators' degree of dependence on alcohol, counseling with policemen as instructors, and discussions with other violators, among other things. After the two-day program taking 12 hours in total, violators will set a goal for controlling their drinking habit and keep a diary for four weeks, detailing the amount of daily alcohol consumption, to see if they are meeting their goals. During the four-week period, violators will "reflect on themselves and raise their awareness against drunken driving," according to an NPA official. After the period ends, they will attend an hour-long lecture before finally taking the driving test again. According to the NPA, fatal traffic accidents involving drunken driving stood at 292 in 2009, showing a decline for the ninth consecutive year after totaling 1,276 such cases in 2000. The number of incidents involving drunken driving has also dropped from 140,873 in 2005 to 41,801 in 2009, thanks to stricter punishment. "In order to further reduce the number of accidents involving drunken driving, we have drawn up the measures from the viewpoint of educating violators," said an NPA official.