Proposed bills aim to close loopholes, strengthen OWI legislation

WISCONSIN – Local legislators have proposed legislation in the state assembly and senate to strengthen Wisconsin’s OWI laws, closing “loopholes” that they say contribute to keeping repeat offenders on the road.
“I was a drunk driving prosecutor before I ran for office…” said Representative Ryan Spaude (D-Ashwaubenon), formerly an assistant district attorney in the Brown County District Attorney’s Office. “The legislation that we introduced a few months ago — Assembly Bill 1131 and Senate Bill 1111 — that legislation is based off my experience in the DA’s office and it also builds on past legislation… It closes three big loopholes. That’s what this bill’s all about.”
“Since I was elected, I’ve had two daughters who have gotten their driver’s licenses, and I think parents know that fear when your kid hits the road — the sweaty-knuckled drives when you’re next to them in the car and you’re putting your foot on the phantom brake…” said Representative Deb Andraca (D-Whitefish Bay). “But in Wisconsin, we have a really unique thing to worry about because our drunk driving laws are so weak that no matter how well we parent our own kids, no matter how responsible they are… We have to worry more about who else is on the road. How many times have they been out drinking and driving behind the wheel and how close are they to your family members?”
By requiring things like ignition interlock devices on every first offense and correcting current legislation that impacts how prior offenses are counted, the bills aim to keep repeat offenders off the road.
“There are people right now in Wisconsin who are living their lives and they are, unfortunately, future families of victims or future victims, because our laws on drunk driving in Wisconsin are horrendous,” said Senator Chris Larson (D-Milwaukee). “I did not realize, the same way probably many families don’t realize, how awful our laws were until it was too late. I experienced it when I was 17 back in high school and we got the call that a friend of mine had been involved in a head-on accident two days before Christmas. The person who was driving the other way was a repeat offender who continued to tack on more and more drunk driving convictions and arrests, but he still had keys to his vehicle and when he got in his vehicle and turned the key, it would start. As a high school kid with all of our friends, we assumed that something would have changed our laws. But many years later, they are still awful and they do not put the necessary barrier between a drunk driver and an operating vehicle.”

“We’ve identified solutions to close those loopholes and when we do that, it will make our roads safer… and it will also put the tools in the toolkit of law enforcement and help make sure that victims have justice and, if you are convicted, that you get the treatment and the resources you need to succeed,” Spaude said.
Ignition interlock devices
The first loophole the proposed legislation aims to close is no ignition interlock device (IID) being required on a first offense unless the offender’s blood alcohol content is 0.15 or higher.
Under the proposed legislation an IID would be required for one year after being convicted of a first offense OWI.
“In a nine-year span, in the state of Wisconsin where they were already required — and these are not required on every conviction — there was 411,000 times where a vehicle didn’t start because the person blowing into the tube was over the legal limit,” Larson said. “411,000 times that somebody could have gotten out on the road and they didn’t. What we would like to do with this legislation is make sure that every single time somebody who has been convicted of a drunk driving offense, for one year, anytime they try to start a vehicle, that they have to be proven sober. It teaches them that there is a real consequence to their actions and it puts a barrier between their bad decision making in that instance and people’s lives who are on the road.”
“[Our son] was just 19 years old when, on March 11, 2023, he and some friends were driving to go hiking and his life was violently ended by the actions of another person who was so cognitively and physically unable to function safely due to her extreme level of intoxication,” said Amy Froehlich, who lost her son Louis to a drunk driver. “This was that woman’s fifth conviction. This sort of technology wasn’t in place to protect our son Louis or us, but we have hope that this technology can prevent the further spread of this sort of violence.”
Second first offenses
The second loophole the proposed legislation aims to close is the “second first offense,” where someone with a first offense that has not been convicted again for 10 years does not receive a second conviction, but rather another first conviction.
“If you have a first offense drunk driving conviction and you are not caught and convicted within the next 10 years — if you manage to escape law enforcement and continue to drink and drive but you evade the law for 10 years — then you won’t have an OWI-second conviction on your record. You’ll have another OWI-first,” Spaude said. “That’s the situation we find ourselves in, and it doesn’t do anyone any favors. It doesn’t protect our roads. It also doesn’t do anything to get people who are convicted the resources they need to turn their lives around. There aren’t enhanced penalties.”
Violations of absolute sobriety
The third loophole the proposed legislation aims to close relates to those who have been caught drinking and driving under the age of 21, which currently carries a charge of “violation of absolute sobriety” and not counted as a prior offense when it comes to OWIs in Wisconsin.
“If you are under the age of 21, your presumed legal limit is 0, not 0.08, because the drinking age is 21,” Spaude said. “If you are underage and you are caught drinking and driving, you can be convicted of something called a violation of absolute sobriety. A violation of absolute sobriety can be counted as a prior offense in Wisconsin if it occurs in 49 out of 50 states. Guess which state it doesn’t count? Wisconsin. Wisconsin law is blind to offenses of violations of absolute sobriety within its own jurisdiction.”