11 January 2021

17 "priors"

"A 73-year-old Green Bay man has been charged with his 18th drunken driving offense, after a crash Friday that took out power lines and caused an outage.

Wallace Bowers had 17 prior operating while intoxicated convictions between 1988 and 2011, but he had a valid license at the time of Friday's crash.

WLUK-TV reported that Wisconsin law now requires driver’s licenses to be revoked after a 4th OWI conviction, if the most recent conviction was within 15 years. But Bowers' last conviction was in 2011, before the new law went into effect in 2018.

“I’ve been sober since the 2011 (incident), that last DWI, and I blame the medications I have to be on (they) can interfere with the few drinks I did have,” Bowers told Court Commissioner Cynthia Vopal during an initial court appearance."
I live in a state famous for its beer and its tolerance of alcohol abuse.  The Tavern League of Wisconsin is a major contributor to political candidates at all levels of government.

Addendum: a multi-vehicle collision at 0245 in the night:





1 comment:

  1. I had a colleague at a Wisconsin campus (to remain anonymous) - when there was a field trip with a student driver, they'd refer to a list of eligible students ranked by fewest drunk driving convictions. Notice I didn't say "none", just fewest.

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