BEIJING (AFP) - A Chinese appeals court on Tuesday overturned the death sentence handed to a drunk driver who killed four people, state media said, in what had been described as China's first capital case for the offence.

Sun Weiming's sentence was reduced to life in prison after his father scrambled to raise hundreds of thousands of yuan in compensation for the families of the victims, who publicly accepted Sun's apologies earlier this month, the reports said.

"The death sentence to the drunken driver has been changed to life in prison," China Central Television reported, citing the high court in southwest Sichuan province.

"The families of the victims have approved this."

Sun collapsed in tears as the verdict was read out, reports said.

He was sentenced to death by an intermediate court on July 24. At the time, state press said it was first-ever death sentence meted out to a Chinese drunk driver.

The 30-year-old was convicted in connection with a multi-car accident in the crowded provincial capital Chengdu in December. After an initial crash, Sun hit three other cars with his Buick sedan as he tried to speed away from the scene.

Besides being drunk, Sun was also driving without a licence. One other person was seriously injured in the mayhem.

Sun's case, including his father's attempts to raise money for the victims' families and convince them to accept Sun's apology, have repeatedly made the headlines here.

The Chinese public has increasingly called for more severe drunk driving penalties, following a string of fatalities in recent years.

In the first week of a two-month nationwide crackdown that began on August 15, police stopped 15,000 drunken drivers, most of whom were arrested in the nation's wealthier cities.

China annually executes more people than the rest of the world combined, with the nation last year putting to death more than 1,700 people out of a global total of almost 2,400, according to Amnesty International.

As China does not publish full data on the death penalty, rights groups say the actual numbers executed could be far higher.