The recent poll data which shows that Wisconsonians lead the nation in drunk driving has caused quite an outcry. The state's culture of drinking and driving received unanimous opprobrium. It didn't take long before Governor Doyle proposed that one's third OWI be considered a felony. And now Christian Schneider of the Wisconsin Policy Research Institute has laid some options on the table. While this is a tough row to hoe, stiffer penalties are a good idea and should be the first option on the table.
About five years ago, my father got three OWIs in the span of 2-3 months. Unlike many, he wasn't going out on the weekends and enjoying a few too many beers before driving home. Instead he was drowning his sorrow in the wake of my stepmother's death. He lived about 10 miles south of Eau Claire and would drive into town so he could lose himself (further) in a haze of vodka gimlets. My stepmom's death sent my father into a spiral of depression which led him to become a virtual recluse. While he was always curmudgeonly, he would only venture out during this period to do a bit of shopping now and then and to go drown his sorrows. My visits consisted mostly of holding him when he burst into tears and watching him get drunk and passing out. I would do chores for him such as mowing the lawn, chopping wood, and empting the recyclables bag which was always spilling over with depleted Siberian Ice bottles. His once beautiful flower garden was overgrown with weeds and, being a fixer-upper kind of guy, all the projects around the house had ground to a halt. There was basically nothing that anyone could say or do to help improve things. The only times that he seemed better was when I was there. I'll spare you the long story and just say that he expressed regret for a lot of things to me during this period and it was the second time I recall him ever expressing his need for his children. But I lived in Madison and couldn't be there constantly – my stepsister pulled a gun from his mouth a few times.
Then came the OWIs. How it was that he got served is beyond me. Either he got to the tavern drunk and was allowed to leave with his keys or bartenders served him when they knew they shouldn't have. The bartenders at his watering hole of choice knew him because A) he was a regular and B) my stepmom had worked there. My stepsister also hung out there. So they knew what was happening; they knew the spiral he was in. How he managed to walk out of these completely shit-faced is something I cannot understand. Luckily no one got hurt and only his car and a roadside sign were damaged. But the hat trick meant time in the pokey. He served 2-3 weeks. I recall visiting him for the first time after he got out and was amazed at the changes. While it didn't prove to be a road to Damascus kind of thing, his time behind bars really changed him. He stopped drinking and driving and reached out to friends and neighbors for rides to town. Plus he made the decision to move, to try to get on with his life somewhere that wasn't burdened with memories of my stepmother. To be sure, he was still grieving but there was a lot less anger in addition to the drive to carry on.
Now, I'm not saying that a couple weeks in jail is going to work miracles for everyone who drinks and drives. We'll be plagued with drunk drivers as long as we have people driving. But imposing jail time for chronic OWI offenders earlier would help. Some may finally get the point and stop; if nothing else, if they're behind bars, they're not behind the wheel drunk.
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