Two bills related to drunk driving were approved by a state Assembly committee on Thursday. One of the measures from Mequon Republican, Representative Jim Ott, requires first-time drunk driving offenders to appear in court rather than simply paying a fine.
“Maybe standing in front of a judge would have enough of an impact on them that they say ‘you know what, I don’t ever want to do this again,'” Ott said Thursday.
The other bill establishes a minimum five year prison term for those convicted of causing a death by drunk driving. “Many times judges sentence appropriately,” Ott said, but noted that’s not always the case. “The worst case I heard was 11 months in jail for killing someone while drunk>”
Ott noted that in 2015, the most recent year for which we have statistics, the DOT reports 190 people died in drunk driving crashes. That’s more than one every two days