Monday, September 8, 2008

Traffic Deaths, OWI Fatalities, Toothless Rhetoric All On The Rise In Wisconsin

Wisconsin state officials have really dropped the ball when it comes to highway safety.

Wisconsin highway deaths were up for August, and our state was also one of the few where fatalities from Operating While Intoxicated (OWI) are increasing - - against a national decline.

The state is participating in a national OWI crackdown and television ad campaign against drunk driving, and that's fine.

But the state needs a higher-visibility, year-round educational program about alcohol abuse that would be added to school curricula and would used by other organizations.

Wisconsin needs an awakening, an attitude adjustment about alcohol, personal responsibility, social condemnation and enforcement of the law.

And speaking of the law, happened to all that talk at the State Capitol about toughening our weak OWI statutes?

Stories about OWI deaths are all too frequent, as Journal Sentinel columnist Jim Stingl noted.

His column was prepared before one particularly gruesome OWI hit-and-run, where a late-night drunk driver killed a female pedestrian in Brown Deer - - her body not discovered for hours, authorities said.

In Wisconsin, a first OWI arrest still results only in a ticket.

You have to get arrested four times before you are charged with a felony, so dangerous repeat offenders are out there on the highway with mere misdemeanors on their records, and their cars back in their possession, because weak-kneed, drunkenness-enabling state officials have given their permission.

The Tavern League, the brewing lobby, and Wisconsin's cultural love affair with booze still have too much sway.

Remember the outrage this spring after a repeat offender in Oconomowoc, forbidden to drove while waiting to report to jail for a prior OWI conviction, got behind the wheel of his SUV while stoned and killed a pregnant woman motorist and her daughter, officials charge?

That led to lots of bold politician talk and headlines, but here it is September, and while legislators are out of session and campaigning at their wine-and-cheese parties and big-time fundraisers where the bars are open, Wisconsin motorists, bikers, bicyclists and pedestrians are being killed by drunk drivers with sickening frequency.


2 comments:

  1. I think there is a real problem with the commercials that they are doing on OWI right now. Everyone knows they are driving all the time intoxicated and not getting caught. The commercials say that enforcement is up. Where?

    What they should do is get a drunk driver on there and say what happened when he got caught. How he called his mom and she wouldn't come get him. How he lost his car because his insurance was too high. How he could have easily used a cab or had a friend drive him and then recovered his car.

    I view this as a similar problem with DARE where they only look at the problem as having a cool police car and a shiny uniform. Some of those kids need to see the cleaned up crack head talking about what happened to him. That is just common sense that some people respond to one message and some respond to another.

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  2. I agree, Vic. The commercials are too cute and ineffective.

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