Drunk driver caught asleep at traffic light

A sales manager has been sentenced to 40 days in jail for driving drunk after he passed out at a stoplight in Songjiang district while on his way home from an end-of-the-year banquet, local prosecutors said Tuesday.

The defendant, surnamed Ma, 42, a car sales manager, was charged with reckless driving for driving drunk in Xinqiao town on December 21, according to a press release from the Songjiang District People's Prosecutor's Office.

Ma drank about 150 grams of Chinese white spirits at an annual lunch banquet that afternoon, but refused the car service provided by the company holding the event, prosecutors said.

Ma was driving home from the banquet when he stopped at red light at the intersection of the Shenzhuan and Husong highways. While waiting for the light to change, he passed out, prosecutors said. He was awakened by a police officer.

The officer tested Ma's breath for alcohol and concluded he was drunk. Police took him to a hospital for a blood-alcohol test, but Ma refused, offering several excuses, including a claim that he had blood cancer, according to the press release.

The test found that Ma's blood-alcohol level was 120 milligrams per milliliter, one-and-a-half times the legal limit of 80 milligrams per milliliter.

After Ma sobered up, he admitted that he had been driving drunk and expressed regret for refusing the blood-alcohol test.

He said he was in a bad mood for getting caught driving drunk, so he refused to cooperate with police, according to the press release.