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Pregnant woman who lost husband to drunk driver advocates for harsher penalties

Published: 12 Nov. 2025, 22:24

A police officer conducts drunk driving inspections on a highway in Seoul on April 18, 2024. [NEWS1]

A pregnant woman expecting twins submitted a national petition calling for harsher penalties for drunk driving after losing her husband in a drunk driving accident, gathering about 6,000 signatures in just two days.

The woman uploaded a petition titled “Enact a Law for Non-Reducible Punishment for Drunk Driving” (translated) on the National Assembly’s official petition website.

According to the woman, her husband died on Oct. 7 after being hit by a drunk driver. The suspect was reportedly heavily intoxicated when he drove his SUV onto a sidewalk. The woman’s husband, who was walking at the time, suffered cardiac arrest and was taken to a hospital, but later died.

“My husband and I had suffered a miscarriage once and were preparing to welcome the twins we had longed for,” the woman wrote on the petition. “I can still see his face — smiling every day, twice as happy, twice as excited.”

“What keeps me going, screaming into empty space as if he’s still beside me, are the babies I’m carrying,” she added.

The woman claimed that the driver told police he had no memory of the incident and has since hired a lawyer in what appears to be an attempt to receive a reduced sentence.

Police conduct drunk driving and violations of stop signs inspections near an elementary school in Gangnam District, southern Seoul on Nov. 4. [YONHAP]

“It is deeply unjust that sentences for drunk driving can be reduced,” she wrote.

“Drunk driving is not a simple accident — it’s a clearly foreseeable act of murder,” she continued. “We must strengthen the law so that if someone causes harm, especially loss of life, there can be no reduction in sentence under any circumstances.”

“Please help ensure that my husband, who never got to see the faces of our babies, and our family are not left with this injustice,” she pleaded.

The woman pointed to a loophole in the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes, which allows sentence reductions under the clause for “death or injury due to dangerous driving.”

Police conduct drunk driving and violations of stop signs inspections near an elementary school in Gangnam District, southern Seoul on Nov. 4. [YONHAP]

Under the current law, someone who causes death while driving under the influence is subject to either life imprisonment or a minimum of three years in prison. However, the woman noted that in practice, many offenders receive reduced sentences based on factors such as having no prior convictions, turning themselves in, reaching a settlement or submitting letters of remorse.

She urged lawmakers to revise the law so that such factors can no longer be considered grounds for leniency. The woman also called for raising the minimum sentence from three years to at least eight.

If the petition gains 50,000 signatures within 30 days, it will be formally submitted to the National Assembly and referred to the appropriate standing committee. However, since sentence reduction is currently at the discretion of the judiciary, lawmakers are more likely to discuss alternative institutional measures focused on tougher penalties.

This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
BY SHIN HYE-YEON [[email protected]]