Wednesday, January 21, 2009

OWI Suspect In Quintuple Fatal Crash Has No Priors

The details are not all in, but it has been confirmed that a driver involved in an alcohol-related crash in Marinette County that killed five people has no previous arrests.

My point is that first-time offenders are every bit as deadly as repeat offenders, yet state law - - the only one of its kind in the nation - - treats first-time OWI as a ticket.

4 comments:

Dad29 said...

The details that HAVE emerged make it seem as though the sedan failed to yield right-of-way to the truck. IOW, whether the truck driver was impaired or not, it may not be his fault.

James Rowen said...

An interesting case for lawyers.

An unimpaired truck driver might have been able to make an effective move to avoid the collision.

We'll see.

Anonymous said...

Like you say the facts are not in.

"I'm not prepared to say he was intoxicated," says Marinette County Distrcit Attorney Allen Brey. "I'm not prepared to say he was criminally responsible. I'm not prepared to say he was some how negligent in this matter."

Suppose that the drivers were sober, what do you conclude from this factbase?

James Rowen said...

To Mal: Then obviously OWI is not an issue. So as I said, we'll see.