Police nabbed a 37-year-old man for drunk driving an e-scooter in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province.

The man cursed at police and refused to submit to a breathalyzer test.

Cheong Moon-sik, senior judge at the Chuncheon District Court, said Thursday that the man was sentenced to a fine of 5 million won ($4,200) under the Road Traffic Act.

The case was first put to trial on July 15 on charges of failing to respond to an alcohol measurement test by a police officer who witnessed that the man’s face had turned red (supposedly due to alcohol) and that he staggered while operating an e-scooter.

The moment police found him, the man had shouted, “Is this e-scooter a car? Don’t be ridiculous,” while refusing to be tested.

The judge explained the reason for the sentence, “He committed the crime again, even though he had two previous criminal records of drunk driving. It’s worse than typical drunk driving situations because the man attempted to turn down the police officer’s efforts to secure safe traffic for citizens.”

Cheong announced that the court still took into account that the e-scooter the man had driven at the scene was his personal mobility device, which is excluded from punishment under the revised Road Traffic Act that took effect on Dec. 10.

The revised law allows only those with a driver’s license to use personal mobility devices. Before the new amendment, the previous law had allowed those 13 and older to drive personalized e-scooters at a speed limit of 25 kilometers per hour.

Due to legal grace period, however, the revised Road Traffic Act will not be implemented until April 2021.

In the wake of a series of accidents amid a drastic increase in the use of e-scooters, repeated revisions in regulations have caused greater safety gap concerns among the public. 

In the case of Guri, Gyeonggi Province, from September, it forcibly collected 380 illegally parked e-scooters for public safety and to avoid traffic accidents.

By Kim Hae-yeon (hykim@heraldcorp.com)