For those fatal traffic accidents, many drivers have been accused of endangering public safety using dangerous means, which is hard to realize in practice. The crime of endangering public safety using dangerous means is subject to intention, and it is hard to give evidence that a suspect deliberately meant to commit the offense.

The improvement in the road traffic situation and the reduction of DUI offenses are directly connected with law enforcement. If too loose, DUI offenders could simply settle their cases by paying money and receive a lenient sentence; some offenders may even escape from criminal responsibility. If this is allowed to be the case, we will see more and more DUI offenses in the future.

The recent spate of DUI offenses has taught us that we have lost our principles when dealing with those offenders.

Cars are becoming more and more popular for household use, which unfortunately adds to DUI offenses. Decreasing it from happening and protecting the public should be a major concern that relevant departments are forced to tackle.

I believe China should add DUI crime to its legal system and punish offenders more severely. Only through this practice can the public be protected and DUI be prevented.

Yang Tao (Qilu Evening News): Cars are convenient tools, but they can also mean danger. The fact is that drivers will become less capable of controlling their vehicles if they have become impaired by alcohol. From a legal perspective, drunk driving endangers public safety. It is thus totally acceptable for those who drive drunk to take criminal responsibility, no matter if they are caught in traffic accidents or not. Then a large number of drunk-driving-related traffic accidents could be prevented.

Legal provisions alone are not enough to punish drunk driving. More important is strict law enforcement. Otherwise, the law is useless no matter how severe the consequences it prescribes.

Solution already available

Zong Yuan (Procuratorial Daily): In response to the frequent occurrence of DUI offenses, many people say China should impose more severe punishment against offenders, thus deterring potential drunk drivers. But we should not be too opportunistic about the effects of severe laws. In my opinion, law enforcement, rather than law making, plays a more important role in curbing DUI.

The reason is quite simple. The effects of punishment are not decided by its severity, but by its predictability and timeliness. The predictability means that any crime will be prosecuted and punished without exception, while timeliness means that all offenders will be prosecuted in the shortest possible time. A dearth of predictability and timeliness will render the law ineffective. No matter how severe the legitimate punishment is, if it is not effective, it will not work to prevent the crime from happening.

Here is a simple case as an example. We all know that intentionally killing another will result in the death sentence. The death sentence is a serious punishment indeed. However, murders will not be punished if the police cannot apprehend them. In this sense, police officers' ability to fulfill their duties by capturing each murder outweighs lawmakers' harsh edict. If every drunk driver is found out and punished in a proper and timely manner, irresponsible drivers would not dare to challenge the law.

Law enforcement must be enhanced to make the punishment more timely and effective. We should punish all traffic offenses, including DUI, the very first time, leaving no time or space to escape.

In the run-up to and during the Olympic Games in 2008, traffic authorities in Beijing intensified their efforts to thwart DUI. DUI-involved accidents decreased dramatically as a result. The first half of this year witnessed a rebounding number of DUI offenses and casualties due to looser enforcement. Obviously, the best way to curb DUI is to keep the police force on the road and to punish offenders in a timely manner.

Shan Shibing (Xi'an Evening News): For Chinese people, a society built around automobiles is so new that our awareness of safety and observing laws has not yet caught up. Authorities and the public are seeking viable ways to counter an increasing number of DUI offenses. Nevertheless, should we make changes to current laws or make a new law concerning DUI offenses?

Usually, when an existing legal provision is deemed ineffective, we will come up with another provision to supplement the previous one. As a famous Chinese historian pointed out several decades ago, we will have more and more complicated legal provisions and some day they will even contradict each other, not to mention efficiency and effectiveness.

We have ignored the fact that no matter how many legal provisions we have, if we do not enforce laws properly, none of them will help. In this sense, we should first turn to existing legal provisions and try to make full use of them in the fight against DUI.

Qiu Baochang (The First): Any change to China's law is not easy to make in a short period of time. It needs to be carefully and thoroughly studied. In my personal view, adding a new crime into the Criminal Law is very difficult.

Alternatively, we should impose more serious penalties on DUI offenders, such as a life-long driving prohibition, or expand the current driving prohibition duration, and cultivate an environment critical of DUI.

As defined in the Criminal Law, DUI is the preparatory phase of crime. But the major purpose of the Criminal Law is to educate people. If we were to punish all DUI offenders that do not produce serious consequences, we are loosening the crime criteria and it will quickly fill the jails.