MARSHFIELD, WI (WSAU) — A local lawmaker’s bill to help protect Wisconsin highways from drunk-drivers passed in the State Assembly on Thursday, and State Representative John Spiros of Marshfield says SB-135 will revoke the drivers licenses of repeat drunk-driving offenders for ten years following their fourth offense.
“What this bill basically says is, if you’ve had multiple DUIs in that period of time, then you would lose your license and you could not get an occupational license for ten years,” Spiros explained. “So, it’s the fourth DUI.”
Drunk-driving is a huge problem in the state according to the Marshfield lawmaker, and since there’s currently no standard punishment for license revocation under current law, the new legislation was long overdue.
“There’s been a great deal of inconsistency with penalties for repeat DWI offenders, somebody that has four or five or six, they can still get an occupational license,” Spiros said on Friday following the vote which took place late Thursday night.
There was some debate on the Assembly floor over the issue of revoking licenses that could impact a person’s employment, but Sprios says when you get to four DUIs, enough is enough.
“There were a few people who stood up and said, I can’t support this because we’re taking away somebody’s license. But my whole point was, this is four! It’s not one, it’s not two, it’s not three, it’s four!”
According to data collected by the Department of Transportation, Wisconsin had over 1,800 convictions for drivers that committed their fourth or higher DWI offense in 2015 alone.
Spiros co-authored the bill with State Senator Van Wanggaard.
The bill had previously passed the State Senate, but since it was amended by the Assembly it will need to head back to the Senate in March before going to the Governor for his signature.