It's no secret we like the grog in Wisconsin. And with all that drinking it's easy to assume that too many tend to drive after drinking as well. But Mothers Against Drunk Driving now reports that we tend to run into each other and kill each other more often than in other states after drinking and driving.

MADD says that Wisconsin has the highest percentage of fatalities from alcohol-related crashes as compared to the total fatalities from other accidents -- 42.1 percent or 305 deaths in 2006 -- compared with the rest of the union. It does note, however, that the figure is a 5.3 percent decrease from the year before.

"A weak interlock law, first offenses are not crimes, and no sobriety checkpoints, MADD hopes to change this," says a MADD statement.

Indeed, Wisconsin's drunk driving laws could use some tweaking, mainly along the lines of more progressive discipline and it does remain the only state that does not make a first offense a crime. But that's not a deterrent. As for sobriety checkpoints, they are very scary to go through since those in the car aren't used to being probed by police given the sole reason is that they are on the road. But sobriety checkpoints seems to be more at the top of MADD's agenda these days since they are targeting at least nine states to enact checkpoints. Wisconsin Attorney General JB Van Hollen made a key point of his campaign to oppose sobriety checkpoints.

Utah had the least number of dead due to drunks compared with non-drunk traffic deaths -- 18.8 percent or 54. In terms of shear numbers, Texas led the nation with 1,354 alcohol-related road fatalities. That figure is 39 percent of the state's total road deaths, ranking it No. 47.

Private Operator Rips off VA: We're not known to drift across the geography of Wisconsin too far in this column, but this egregious example of privatization run amok cannot be ignored. Two new Veterans Administration health clinics in Hayward and Rice Lake that opened in June have closed six months later, literally locking the doors while patients waited. Employees found their paychecks bouncing shortly before the doors were shut.

The clinics were built and operated by Corporate Health and Wellness, a Kentucky-based operation that, as of late, was run as a sole proprietorship. The company's owner said it simply ran out of money, but others see it as a response to the VA canceling its contract at the end of 2008, according to several media reports. VA officials say there was no warning about the closing. They now promise that the clinics will be reopened as soon as possible. Corporate Health and Wellness says it won't allow the clinics to be operated by others unless they get paid "a fair price" for them.

About 900 vets in northern Wisconsin are affected. They will now have to go to clinics hours away in Duluth or Minneapolis for their health care. Local, state, federal and Indian officials were involved in lobbying for the clinic, although there didn't seem to be too much oversight.

 Page 1 of 2 

Next >>

2 comments about this article. Post a comment / write a review.

Recent Talkbacks ...