The Identification And Improvement Of Racing Driving In Criminal Law

With the development of society and economy,cars have become important traffic tools.Although they are convenient to people’s life,frequent traffic accidents alarm the bell for us.A series of serious traffic accidents,such as Hu Bin case in Hangzhou,Sun Weiming case in Chengdu,and Zhang Mingbao case in Nanjing,have caused widespread discussion in the country.Facing with strong will of people,lawmakers decided to make a move,which has given rise to the coming out of the crime of dangerous driving.On May 1st 2011,Amendment Ⅷto the Criminal Law of the People ’s Republic of China has come into effect,in which racing cars and drunk driving have been made criminal behaviors in article 133.The legal provision has stated as follows—those who racing motor vehicles or driving while intoxicated on road shall be made in detention and be fined;those who commit any crime in the preceding paragraph and also constitute another crime shall be punished by heavier provisions.It can’t be denied that making dangerous driving a crime is a major breakthrough in dealing with a series of dangerous driving behaviors,and also a useful exploration that is good for the realization of the protective function of our society.As far as I know,the judicial organs around the country strike heavily against drunk driving in the following three years since the issue of the amendment—the number of drunk driving cases has declined and so the purpose of the legislation has been realized.However,cases against such dangerous driving behaviors as racing driving are far from enough.Why is this huge difference?Because the definition of drunk driving and non-drunk driving is clear and the detection of drunk driving is easy.The judge only needs to check the alcoholicity in the suspected drunk driver’s blood to see if he(she)meets the standard of criminal responsibility.By contrast,provisions of the criminal law on racing driving are more general and ambiguous.The suspected has not only to meet the condition of racing driving on the road,but also creating severe consequences.However,as for how to deal with a series of problems such as the definition of racing driving,the standard of serious consequences,and the meaning of "road" and "motor vehicle",the law doesn’t stipulate explicitly,nor are there supporting judicial interpretation and the detailed rules for implementation.Moreover,China’s judicial personnel depend highly on legal provisions and lack the awareness of "interpreting law".So the judicial organs find such cases hard to deal with,which results in the low number of such cases.Given this,the discussion on racing driving in theory and practicing field has never stopped and the details of racing driving as a crime has been heavily debated,which provides large room for researches on racing driving.Explicating problems such as the constitutive features of the crime and the definition of the behavior is of great practical significance.The article is divided into five parts.The first part is an overview of racing driving,including the reason of making racing driving a crime and the current situation of judicial practices and its reason analysis.The second part is the clear definition of racing driving.The writer analyzes the subjects and the subjective aspects of the behavior,and the tools,locality,and criminal circumstances of the crime.The fourth part is the judicial cognizance of racing driving,including the definition of racing driving,kinds of severe consequences,relations and distinction with other relevant crimes,and the identification of the accomplice of the crime.The fifth part is to improve law on the racing driving as a crime.This part analyzes the deficiency of racing driving as a crime,and puts forward a way of perfection.