<Anchor>

Drunk driving is a serious crime that puts you and others at risk. Especially when a victim dies in an accident, the victims' families who are left behind may not be able to make ends meet immediately. Therefore, there are many voices that the perpetrators of drunk driving should also be held accountable to the victims' families, and this is what we focused on.

First of all, I'm a reporter for Park Chan-geun.

<Reporter Park Chan-keun>

In January last year, a nightmare happened to Park's family.

Park's father left home early in the morning to work and was killed in a drunken hit-and-run accident.

[Park Chul-ui/Drunk Driving Victim Family: I have to say that I have changed completely, but I think he was one of the few people who were really important in my life.]

The eldest son, Mr. Park, took a leave of absence from college and had to urgently clean up his father's business.

[Park Chul-ui/Drunk driving victim bereaved family: I should have suddenly saved the accounts receivable and accounts payable, and the employees also quit their jobs, so I had to take all the severance pay...]

The father's vacancy grew, and every time he heard the stories of his children who lost their parents to drunk driving, it was not like a job.

[Park Chul-ui/Families of DUI victims: We are adults in the midst of our misfortune and can take responsibility for ourselves, but they were too young and probably didn't know much...]

In the three years since 2019, an average of 262 people have lost their lives in drunk driving accidents a year.

The impact on bereaved families, especially young children, is bound to be greater.

According to a survey conducted by the Transportation Research Institute, in all traffic accidents including drunken accidents, 24% of the children were under 3 years old at the time of the death of the victim's parents, and 36% were 3~6 years old.

After the accident, the average monthly income of a family fell by less than half.

The percentage of homeownership has gone down and the percentage of people living in rental housing has risen.

More than half of the children said they "didn't recover" after their parents' accident.

On the other hand, in the case of drunk driving offenders, 3 out of 4 people who were involved in a car accident had no change in their occupation and 60% had the same income.

1 in 10 said their income has increased.

While the perpetrators are not affected by the accident, the children have to contend with financial hardship as well as mental distress.

(Video Interview: Bae Moon-san, Video Editing: Kim Jun-hee, CG: Kim Kyu-yeon and Eom So-min)

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<Anchor>

In some parts of the United States, if a person dies while driving under the influence of alcohol, the perpetrator is also responsible for the child support of the victim. It went into effect in January of this year, and it's also called the "Bentley Act" after the actual victims' families. We interviewed Bentley's grandmother, who worked hard to make the law.

Ha Jung-yeon is a reporter.

<Reporter Ha Jung-yeon>

Cecilia Williams lost her son and her four-month-old grandson in a drunk driving accident in April 2021.



The hardest part after the accident was that she couldn't replace her parents.

[Cecilia Williams/Bereaved Victims of DUI: I have to deal with the grief of losing a child every day and watch my children grieve. I ask myself if I will have enough for my grandchildren, but I still haven't found an answer.]

Mr. Williams began campaigning for legislation around the United States to make perpetrators of DUI fatalities responsible for child support for victims' children.

As a result, the Bentley Act, named after his grandson, passed the House of Representatives in Tennessee and went into effect in January of this year.

The goal is for the court to sentence the victim's child to pay child support based on the economic and educational needs of the victim's children, and then receive the money from the perpetrator and remit it to the guardian of the victim child.

[Cecilia Williams/Bereaved Families of DUI Victims: The primary purpose of the Bentley Act is to help children who have lost their parents, but it is also to make (perpetrators) aware of the consequences of their actions.]

It is a "causal retribution" solution to restore justice to the bereaved families and hold the perpetrators accountable for their actions.

[Cecilia Williams/Families of DUI victims: I've seen so many bereaved families struggling financially and mentally since the accident. This is unjust on the part of the bereaved families and there must be a solution.]

In addition to Tennessee, more than 20 U.S. states are considering adopting Bentley laws, with some state legislatures pushing legislation that would require child support to be paid up to age 23.

The Korean version of the Bentley Act was introduced in the National Assembly on the 17th.

(Video Interview: Bae Moon-san, Video Editing: Yoon Tae-ho)

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<Anchor>

Let's wrap this up with reporter Ha Jung-yeon.

Q. What are the current support measures for children who have drunk accidents?

[Reporter Ha Jung-yeon: Material against the perpetrator Civil lawsuits seeking mental damages can still be pursued. However, because the lawsuit itself is time-consuming and costly, it can be another pain for the victims. If a victim of a motor vehicle fatal accident or severe disability has a minor child, there is a government-funded system. However, it is only applicable to these basic living beneficiaries and the next highest class, and this support is also about 70,000 won per month self-reliance support and 250,000 won interest-free living fund loan per month.]

Q. What is the main content of the Korean version of the Bentley Act?

[Reporter Ha Jung-yeon: The bill introduced in the National Assembly is an amendment to the Child Support Law. The current law allows child support to be received only from parents, but by adding a "third party," we have created a legal basis for receiving it from the perpetrator of drunk driving. It is quite similar to the Bentley law in the United States, where when a definitive judgment is made, the court receives child support from the offender and remits it to the child, the child's parent or guardian. And if you persist without paying child support, you can also enforce such as garnishment. It also stipulated that even if the offender is in prison, he or she can initiate unconditional child support payments within six months of his release.]

Q. What is the reaction of the children involved in drinking accidents?

[Reporter Ha Jung-yeon: Apparently, the victims sympathized with the issue and the legislative intent, but they still found it very difficult to relive the memory of losing their father or mother.

[Park Chul-ui/Families of DUI victims: I think it's positive to make sure that compensation is guaranteed, but I don't think we need a system to enforce before that, or a system to prevent (drunk driving) from happening.]

[Reporter Ha Jung-yeon: We asked for a 365-day crackdown, because no amount of compensation or compensation can erase the wounds of the bereaved families.]