When a man surnamed Li from New Taipei City was driving through Luzhou in January 2023, he used his mobile phone to check navigation while driving. He drove into the opposite lane in the opposite direction and collided with a motorcycle rider surnamed Qiu. The man was killed and his daughter was injured. The case was heard by a civil judge. The New Taipei District Court found that Mr. Li was driving in the wrong direction and distracted by using his mobile phone. He was sentenced to four years and six months in prison for negligent death. The case was appealed and the High Court today dismissed the appeal.
The prosecutor determined that Li Nan had used the second-level drug methamphetamine before the incident, and was involved in the crime of failing to drive safely and causing death. However, the National Judge's Court held that although Li Nan's urine test showed a positive reaction for methamphetamine and the concentration was relatively high, according to the opinions of the Institute of Forensic Medicine and Taipei Rongzong, the urine concentration could not be used to predict the blood concentration at the time of the accident, nor could it be used to judge whether the driving ability at that time was affected by drugs.
The first-instance verdict pointed out that Li Nan admitted that he had used methamphetamine 3 or 4 days before the incident, but on the day of the incident, he chatted with his friends all night and stayed up. Whether his mental state was due to staying up late or withdrawing from the drug could not be confirmed. In addition, Li Nan confessed that because he was not familiar with the road conditions, he kept looking down at the navigation on his mobile phone to find the way. Before the accident, he even held his mobile phone in his left hand to watch the navigation, causing him to drive in the opposite direction without paying attention to the situation in front of the car.
The New Taipei District People's Court held that the prosecutors failed to present blood test results, physiological balance tests or other evidence sufficient to prove that Li was "unable to drive safely" at the time of the incident. Therefore, based on the principle of light suspicion, it could not be determined that there was a considerable causal relationship between drug driving and the car accident, and he was instead charged with negligent death and negligent injury.
Li Nan drove completely into the opposite lane at that time, violating traffic rules. The murdered rider Qiu Nan was not responsible for the accident, but died of severe head injuries due to the impact. Qiu Nan's family members stated in court that after the accident, Qiu Nan's mother was overly sad and subsequently suffered a stroke and was unable to take care of herself. His father suffered from depression and passed away earlier this year, which was a major blow to the family.
The National Judge's Court considered that although Mr. Li met the conditions for surrender, the incident was completely captured on surveillance cameras, and many people reported the crime at the scene. Surrendering would be of limited help to the investigation. In addition, he later blamed part of the blame on the deceased, and had not compensated his family members for more than two years after the incident, so his sentence would not be reduced. Li Nan had multiple traffic violations and a history of drug use, and had poor conduct. Considering the circumstances of the crime and the damage suffered to the victim's family, he was sentenced to 4 years and 6 months in prison.
The case was appealed, and after hearing it, the High Court found that the first-instance judgment was correct and dismissed the appeal.
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