A man is facing a criminal charge of dangerous driving for allegedly asking his drunk colleague to drive his car, Shanghai police said on Thursday.

China’s road traffic safety law prohibits people from forcing or asking other people to drive motor vehicles in violation of traffic regulations and safe driving rules.

The man surnamed Wu allegedly asked his drunk colleague, a man surname Wang, to drive his car for him after the two, together with another colleague, a woman surnamed Zhu, had dinner at a restaurant in Xuhui District on the evening of October 12.

Wu is a vice general manager of a restaurant chain company, and Wang and Zhu work for him at his department.

As Wang was driving Wu and Zhu past the Zhongshan Road N. off-ramp of the Inner Ring Road at 11:30pm, he was stopped by the traffic police of Putuo District who had set up a road block to check for drunk drivers.

Wang was found with a blood alcohol level of 81mg/100ml, just over the drunk-driving threshold of 80mg/100ml in China.

Wang is given a breath test for alcohol at a road block on the evening of October 12.

Wang being tested

Later a blood test showed that his blood-alcohol level was 88mg/100ml, police said.

When being questioned by police at Zhongshan Road N. Police Station, Wang said it was Wu who asked him to drive the car for him.

Wu and Zhu were then summoned to the police, but both claimed that they were so drunk that they were carried by their colleague into the car and were not aware of what happened afterwards, police said.

However, police checked the surveillance cameras at the restaurant and found that the three did not appear intoxicated as they walked out to the car.

Wu at the door of the restaurant on the evening of October 12

Wang (left) and zhu (right) at the door of the restaurant on October 12

Wu and Zhu were summoned to the police again and finally confessed. Wu admitted that he asked Wang to drive. For fear of being held responsible, he asked Zhu to lie to the police with him. Zhu admitted that she lied to the police, but said Wu asked her to do so.

Wang was sentenced to one month in prison for dangerous driving and has served out his term, while Wu and Zhu were still under detention by Thursday pending the criminal charges of dangerous driving and perjury, police said.