Underage Drinking and Driving
On Tuesday my boyfriend Andrew and I were going to look at a house for rent in Eland when a local kid came FLYING around a corner in a big old truck- nearly taking us out on his way- with his head hanging out the window. He narrowly missed my cr-v, swerving to miss us as I swerved to miss him. Immediately after we rounded the corner Andrew insisted I turn around because the kid had to be ‘in the trees.’ Sure enough. before I could stop the vehicle Andrew was out of it chasing down the fleeing youngster (who had just barely gotten his license) and yelling at him to stop running. He later told me he thought about grabbing him by the neck and shaking some sense into him, but decided the kid had been shaken up enough. all the kid could say was “you can’t tell anyone - Andrew don’t tell on me.” To our left stood the other young boy who rode shot gun simply staring at what once resembled a truck. Being the small town it is, immediately the scene was flooded with neighbors to take care of the situation. We noticed the drivers’ mother’s truck at the only bar in town and stopped to inform her of the accident. Then we continued on our way to look at the house. Upon our return we saw that there were now about 20 on lookers in shock and amazement at how these boys had lodged this huge truck in between those trees, as well as police on the scene. Since we had seen the accident we felt we should give a statement. As we walked up to the sheriffs car we could over hear the mother of the driver saying something about a breathalyser and then “he can’t go to jail, he’s only 16.” Drunk driving at 16! I was shocked. I mean at 23 I know better than to drink and drive. at 21 I knew better than to drink and drive. at 18, 17, 16, i knew better than to drink and drive. I guess a 16 year old drunk driver you can at least blame the ignorance on youth. Sad thing is: these children probably won’t learn a damned thing from this and continue a destructive path. They will get a slap on the wrist because we live in WI… a drinking state. and the parents? I can not say for sure, but i think they will under punish because they are just happy the kids are alive. They really should have died in that crash. Not that i am wishing death on them! definitely not, i am as happy as the next person to see them walk away from it. but the crumpled remainder of the vehicle tells you they should have died. Andrew, his father and some other farm help got a tractor, truck and trailer to get the wreck out of the trees for the family. Onlookers photographed the process. In the end, the fragmented truck sat on the 5th wheel trailer and we stared. Many things crossed my mind: ‘holy shit!’ ‘how did they get out of there?’ ‘what were they thinking?’ ‘they almost hit me…’ ‘remember when you rolled your truck?’ and in mid thought I looked over at the passenger who was lucky enough to be standing. and standing he was. Arms folded staring at the truck with a big grin on his face. knowing only two weeks earlier he had done the same thing to his father’s truck. to young to understand just how lucky they are to survive? Sadly next time they might not be so lucky. and then the entire small town will have a funeral to gather at. Or what if a child had been bicycling down that road, which often happens being a small country town. After the truck was pulled out there was about half a dozen beer cans left where the wreck had landed.
I found out yesterday that the 16 year old that nearly wrecked my new car because he was drunk driving only got an under age drinking violation. I just don’t understand how not giving him a DUI or OWi or whatever it is that he was doing is going to help him at all. I feel sheltering a child with this destructive behavior only lessens his chance of not becoming a repeat offender. I want to write angry letters to the DA about this.
Any opinions?
citizenweston said:
That is freaking crazy!!! What if there had been small children playing wherever you were? The possibilities are endless for tragedy in a situation like that. It baffles me how people don’t learn from something like that. I’m guessing we’ll probably be reading about these kids’ fifth and sixth offenses in the newspapers in the near future.
July 25th, 2008 at 7:20 am #
Mohawk Matt said:
He’ll have to take the same class that all first-time DUI offenders have to take. I recently went through the class myself, and there was an underage kid there who got an underage drinking fine and had to take the class, and his license was also suspended. I believe they don’t give an underage kid the DUI because it will stay on your record forever, and it’s kind of like giving him a chance.
July 25th, 2008 at 9:54 am #
Stephenie said:
I have seen this kid numerous times in the past driving erratically. Next time I am calling the cops to phone in his license plate and saying “i think they are drunk” every time i see it happening until he gets busted again. how many chances should he get before he kills someone innocently walking down the road? i think one is almost to many.
July 28th, 2008 at 9:44 pm #
Citizen Wausau » Blog Archive » Your Voice: July 29 said:
[…] followed by a real crash, a pursuit, and a breathalyzer test. Stephenie writes about the consequences of underage drinking and driving, and about how police choose to apply […]
July 29th, 2008 at 9:13 am #
Jill Knetter said:
I’m appalled that he got in so little trouble for it. If there is one thing I can’t stand it’s a drunk driver, especially one who gets a slap on the wrist and a “Don’t do that again.” When I was in 6th grade a close friend of mine and her family got hit in their van by a drunk driver. The kid was 19 and had just had his license suspended on charges of drunk driving. It was foggy out and he was going upwards of 80mph on a gravel road. My friend escaped the wreck…with a broken pelvis, broken ankle and a fractured jaw. Her brother suffered two broken arms and her sister suffered a broken arm and internal injuries that almost killed her. And the drunk driver? Oh he was fine. A couple scratches maybe, but isn’t that how it always goes? Thankfully he actually got in huge trouble and (hopefully?) learned his lesson. He had to pay the family HUGE amounts in fines for what he did and I think he had to do some jail time. All I can remember thinking is how angry I was that somebody could be so stupid. If you climb behind the wheel of a vehicle and you’ve been drinking, you knowingly endanger the life of anybody you meet on the road. I don’t care if you’ve “only had a few” and it’s just a few blocks - if it’s so close, walk! Or sober up and then go.
I’m never going to understand why people do this.
July 29th, 2008 at 9:19 am #
Alex Tallitsch said:
I got a OWI in 1988 several months after I got my drivers license. It was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to me. Knowing the consequences was a huge deterrent, at least in my case.
Those kids are quite lucky.
August 1st, 2008 at 5:43 pm #