[Anchor]

A kindergarten school bus driver was caught for drunk driving on the way to pick up children in front of an elementary school in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province. He claimed that he had slept enough after drinking the previous day, but his blood alcohol level registered at a level subject to license suspension.

Reporter Jung Sang-won from JTV.

[Reporter]

In front of an elementary school in Jeonju.

Police flag down vehicles passing through a child protection zone.

It has been less than 10 minutes since morning commute drunk driving crackdowns began.

An alarm sounds from the alcohol detector.

[Drunk Driving Enforcement Police: More, more, more, more, more, more. That's it.]

The blood alcohol concentration of the driver in his 40s, who said he drank a bottle and a half of soju the night before, was 0.037 percent, a level warranting license suspension.

[Driver Caught for Drunk Driving: I slept enough. It's unexpected (that it came out as a suspension level).]

Furthermore, a driver operating a kindergarten school bus was also caught in the crackdown.

Registering 0.041 percent, a level subject to license suspension, this driver was on his way to pick up kindergarteners without even sobering up.

[Kindergarten School Bus Driver: I'm on my way to pick up (the kindergarteners). I have to run the kindergarten route now.]

The bus driver claimed he thought he would be fine after getting plenty of sleep following a night of drinking about a bottle and a half of makgeolli, and requested a blood test for more precise measurement.

However, as this driver has a past record of being punished for drunk driving, his license will be revoked if the blood test results also confirm a suspension level.

Last year, a total of approximately 104,000 cases of drunk driving were detected nationwide.

Among them, about 8,600 cases were cracked down on during the morning commute.

School zones are areas where children, who are not easily visible, can suddenly pop out anywhere at any time.

Driving with a hangover impairs judgment and reaction time, easily leading to fatal accidents.

The steering wheel grabbed with peace of mind over drinks from the previous day is threatening children.

(Video by: Jung Hee-do, JTV)

Jung Sang-won, JTV