Crime & Safety
Driving in Wrong Lanes Is Almost Sure to Get You Pulled Over
Two out of three recent arrests for OWI were of drivers blatantly in the wrong, oncoming lanes of traffic, and in one case, almost hitting a squad car.
Three drivers were arrested recently in Wauwatosa on suspicion of drunken driving, all first offenses but including two heading the wrong way into oncoming traffic, among the most dangerous of violations, and one time right at a Tosa police officer.
At about 12:48 a.m. June 19, a patrol officer was going west on North Avenue in the 11200 block when he saw a pickup truck coming right at him.
The officer hit his lights and slammed on the brakes at the same time, and an accident was averted.
The driver said he'd had one beer with a friend, and added that he thought he'd been stopped because of his race. The patrol officer pointed out that he had no idea of the driver's race but stopped him, rather, because he'd been on the wrong side of a divided road and had almost front-ended him.
There was a cooler containing three beers, and a bottle of liquor on the front seat, and another cooler and an empty liquor bottle in the bed of the truck.
The driver failed half of a series of field sobriety tests and could not perform the rest. He refused a breath test and said he would see the officer in court.
Again with the driving in oncoming lanes
A 10:09 p.m. June 28, a similar incident occurred when a patrol officer saw a driver come through the construction zone on Blue Mound Road approaching Mayfair Road and crossed into the oncoming lane.The driver did not seem confused by the road-work – rather, he accelerated to 50 mph in the 35-mph zone.
The officer hit his lights and pulled the man over, and he had the usual glassy eyes and slurred speech.
He failed sobriety tests but did agree to a breath test, blowing a .098 on the road and a .10 at the station.
Or, just weaving all over everybody's lanes
At 12:33 a.m. June 29, the same patrol officer saw a car in the same area, the 12200 block of Blue Mound, weaving all over the road, and decided he should stop the driver right away.The woman at the wheel had five passengers and was taking them to the Sheraton Hotel in Brookfield, she said. She would not look directly at the officer and said she'd had nothing to drink at all, but he reported that she smelled of alcohol and had slurred speech.
After being asked to perform field sobriety tests, the woman admitted she'd in fact been drinking all day, and ultimately she could not complete all the tests without falling down.
She agreed to take chemical breath tests and her final reported value was a .15 blood alcohol concentration.
In her final statement to police, the woman decided to split the difference in her earlier statements and asserted that she had drunk exactly four beers that evening and did not feel intoxicated.
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