BEIJING, July 27 -- Drink driving should be treated as a crime regardless of whether the driver causes a crash, a panel of legal experts has told the country's top court.

    The Supreme People's Court invited the experts to put forward suggestions on drink driving at a meeting last Friday, following heated debate about loopholes in the legal system.

    The majority of the panel believed that motorists who were over the legal blood- alcohol limit "disrespect the lives of others" and that their behavior is "indirectly intentional", Wang Zuofu, deputy director of the research center on criminal law at Beijing Law Society, told China Daily yesterday.

    The SPC is considering the panel's suggestion, Wang said.

    Drink driving is currently considered a violation of traffic rules and drivers can only be detained for up to 15 days if they do not cause an accident, which many believe is the primary reason why drink driving has been on the rise.

    If listed as a crime under criminal law, drink drivers would face judicial charges.

    Last week, Sun Weiming, who was drunk and did not have a driving license when he killed four people and injured one in Sichuan province last year, was handed a death sentence by the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court after being found guilty of endangering public safety.

    He is believed to be the first drink driver in the country to be charged with "endangering public safety" and sentenced to death. A lesser and more common charge would be "a traffic offense" with a maximum penalty of seven years.

    The court's verdict has sent a clear signal that drink drivers can expect harsher punishment, but some legal experts caution against the extreme penalty that they think is too severe.

    Five lawyers in Sichuan province have written to the SPC expressing concern that the death sentence, which they say is "overly harsh", could set a precedent for similar cases.

    Wang, too, said the court should be more cautious, since drink driving is different from other crimes that "endanger public safety," such as murder and arson.

    "We encourage cracking down on drink driving as it has become increasingly serious in cities, but that does not mean we should resort to the death sentence," he said.

    Sun, the drink driver, was quoted by Guangzhou Daily as saying that he would like to compensate the victims' families during the rest of his life instead of being sentenced to death.

    "I'm only 30 years old. There must be something I can do to compensate them," he said, almost in tears, in court.

    Zhang Peihong, a Shanghai-based lawyer, said the Chengdu case may mean Zhang Mingbao, who killed five pedestrians including a pregnant woman in Nanjing last month while driving drunk, faces similar punishment. He has been arrested for "endangering public safety".

    But lawyer Zhang said unlike Sun, the Nanjing man has a license and did not flee the scene. He should be charged with "a traffic offense" instead of "endangering public safety", he said.