Court Says Man Can't Be Charged with Drunk Driving Because He Chugged Entire Bottle After Getting Pulled Over

A court has ruled that a South Korean man cannot be charged with drunk driving because he chugged an entire bottle of liquor after getting pulled over, ruining any chance of an accurate alcohol test.

The man, 60, was cleared of drunk driving charges after the court stated that it would be impossible to determine if he had been over the legal limit while driving, as reported by the Korea Herald.

The man had been stopped by police around 11:30 p.m. Sept. 17 in Daegu after he was suspected of driving under the influence. However, the man chugged a bottle of soju — a liquor compared to a weaker vodka — in just 39 seconds before police could test him.

Police tested the man 40 minutes after the initial traffic stop, and tried to estimate his blood alcohol content before he downed the bottle by using the Widmark formula, which determines prior alcohol levels by accounting for the passage of time, sex, weight and known consumption.

Based on this, the man was suspected of having a BAC percentage of 0.128. In South Korea, drivers with BAC percentages over 0.03 can be punished and those over 0.07 can have their license revoked, according to the Korea Herald.

However, the court ruled that the evidence was not strong enough to determine if he had been drunk while driving. Meanwhile, witnesses of the traffic spot said that the man had parked erratically, and appeared to have exited his car stagger, as reported by the Herald.

"Even if the defendant did drink the entire bottle of soju as he claimed, it is unclear why he would appear intoxicated immediately afterward," the court stated in the verdict. "But we cannot definitively confirm that he was drunk while driving based on such circumstantial evidence or speculation."