A Taiwanese taxi driver who was rear-ended by an illegally turning scooter has won back his licence, a good outcome for drivers facing harsh penalties over crashes they did not cause.

• The driver was hit in Tainan by a scooter that cut into a lane where scooters are banned, then failed a roadside alcohol test by a hair.
• Police treated it as drunk driving causing injury and pulled his licence for four years, which would have cut off his family's income.
• The Kaohsiung High Administrative Court ruled his drinking had no causal link to the crash, and scrapped the punishment.
• Prosecutors had already declined to charge him, and both sides had settled privately before the case reached court.

Outlook: The ruling can still be appealed, but it sets a marker that drink-driving penalties need an actual causal link to the crash.