A drunken driver accused of killing a man and seriously injuring his new wife with his 1 million yuan ($147,000) BMW SUV will be charged.

Lin Luanjian, a seafood businessman from Fujian province, has been formally arrested by police and will be charged when he faces court, according to Beijing traffic management bureau (BTMB).

Lin told officers that he drank two bottles of red wine with dinner and then drove to the drug store on Oct 9, the night of the crash.

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A 26-year-old woman, surnamed Wang, was severely injured after Lin's car allegedly ploughed into the newly-weds as they rode home on a motorcycle. The husband, a 23-year-old Beijing citizen, was killed immediately.

The condition of the injured woman is now stable. But her parents have not yet been able to tell her that her husband is dead. The couple received their marriage certificate just days ago and had been planning their wedding banquet.

Zhang Jingchun, the director of news office of BTMB, refused to confirm a Beijing News report that Lin asked his friend to send the injured woman and the victim's family 50,000 yuan on Monday.

There were 3.8 million vehicles on Beijing's roads at the end of September, and the number is growing at a fast speed. In 2008, 986 people in Beijing were killed because of car accidents, according to the figures provided by the BTMB, although it does not reveal clearly how many of them died due to drunk driving.

China launched a nationwide campaign to crack down on the rate of drunken driving in August.

Wang Fuyi, a senior law professor of the Renmin University of China, said he sympathized with victims, but from the perspective of the law, it is difficult to judge whether the fatal drunk driving can be defined as endangering the public safety. "The question is still heatedly debated." Wang told METRO yesterday.

But he said China had an unhealthy wine culture, which included peer pressuring others.

"Most of the time, people drink together for friendship or something happy. But persuasion can easily make drinking like a competition and something uncomfortable. Therefore everything becomes a mess after overdrinking," Wang said.

Qiu Baochang, a Beijing lawyer, believes that lack of punishment is the reason that why so many drivers dare to drive after drinking.

"If the government can adopt the policies like canceling the driver's license permanently, several financial punishment or putting the over-drunk driver into prison for a longer time, they will be more cautious before deciding whether to drive after drinking," Qiu said.

"The whole society should be more involved in the campaign to make situation better, such as good promotion and popularizing the relief drive service etc. It is not only the traffic management departments' responsibility."