Huang, 47, is from Jiangsu province. Alcohol tests showed 212 milligrams of alcohol in his system per 100 milliliters of blood - nearly three times the legal limit, according to police.

Under Chinese law, a person is considered intoxicated if tests show a concentration of at least 80 milligrams alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.

According to local media, Huang's passenger, surnamed Liu, and the man's child were also in the car at the time. Liu persuaded Huang to stop and tried to grab the key but failed.

"So far, Huang has been in criminal detention under suspicion of intentional killing. Police are still investigating the accident," an officer from Shanghai Nanhui traffic department said, but the officer declined to reveal more.

The country has continually tightened its crackdown on driving while intoxicated, and government figures have shown significant yearly declines.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, the number of intoxicated drivers caught by the department from May 1 to Dec 30 last year was about 38,000, down by 45 percent compared to the same period in 2010.

During the weeklong Spring Festival holiday, a peak season for drinking, the country saw 1,795 traffic accidents, a year-on-year decline of 14.9 percent.

These accidents caused 547 deaths and 2,080 injuries, down 34.3 percent and 28 percent, respectively, from last year, according to the ministry.

The relative of a victim who died in a multi-car pileup in Shanghai on Saturday weeps in grief at the site of the accident upon learning of the death of her family member, a woman who was trapped inside a car and burned to death. Yun Qing / for China Daily