Gao Xiaosong is taken to the Dongcheng house of detention on Tuesday. Photo: IC

Songwriter Gao Xiaosong was detained by Beijing police on Tuesday afternoon after being caught drunk driving on Monday, according to the Beijing Traffic Management Bureau.

Best known for his 1990s campus ballad "My Deskmate," Gao was driving his white Infiniti SUV when he crashed into a car stopped at a red light at an intersection near Dongzhimewai Dajie at about 10:30 pm.

The collision caused a four-car pile-up. Two cabbies were slightly injured, according to the Legal Mirror.

A blood test showed Gao had 243 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood, well over the 80-milligram limit.

Gao told police he had drunk a bottle of white wine and a bottle of foreign wine before taking the wheel. He may face detention from one to six months under the newly amended Road Traffic Safety Law that came into effect on May 1, which also states that drunk drivers will have their licenses revoked for five years.

Gao's film My Kingdom comes out in August, and he is also a judge on Dragon TV's China's Got Talent.

The accident has sparked heated debate among Web users. Gao earlier criticized Yao Jiaxin, a student at the Xi'an Conservatory of Music who stabbed a woman to death, on his Sina microblog, claiming that the Chinese music field would never accept students from the conservatory.

"How can people who disregard life love music?" he wrote on April 17.

"If your drunk driving caused a deadly tragedy, then the only difference between you and Yao just lies in the way of killing others," commented a Sina microblogger.

Global Times – Xinhua