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Mar 6, 2008 10:16 pm US/Central
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2 Investigation Prompts Review Of Snowmobile Laws
Wisconsin May Make Drunken Snowmobile Offenses Tied To Driver's License
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
Snowmobiling can be an exciting sport for those seeking thrill, speed, and a wintry atmosphere. However, among the families and packs of safety-conscious riders there are a small percentage of reckless snowmobile operators who drive drunk. Law enforcers say they are putting themselves and other lives at risk by partaking in what police describe as a deadly ritual: bar hopping and becoming intoxicated along Wisconsin snowmobile trails.
Snowmobile trails lead to nearly every bar. Signs with martini glasses as symbols point riders in the right direction. This years' heavy snowfall has lured more riders, and the death toll has surged to 24. More than half of those deaths were alcohol-related.
"Year in and year out Wisconsin's sitting at the top of the list for the number of fatalities," said Gary Eddy, a warden in charge of snowmobile enforcement for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. "It's a disgrace."
Annually, thousands of Illinois snowmobile riders head to Wisconsin's Northwoods, and last month so did the CBS 2 investigative team. The 2 Investigators documented taverns in towns like Tomahawk, Minocqua and St. Germain and found them loaded with bartenders playing drinking games, offering half-price specials and free shots.
Undercover Cameras With cameras hidden in snowmobile helmets and in buttonholes of shirts, CBS2 investigators exposed a deadly side of the snowmobiling culture where some snowmobile operators staggered out of bars before returning to the trails.
The 2 Investigators found snowmobile operators becoming intoxicated and driving, and bartenders – who are supposed to know when to cut off drunken patrons – joining the party and taking shots of alcohol themselves. One bar welcomes snowmobile operators with their first drink on the house.
Hidden cameras recorded one man bragging about the fact that he had driven a snowmobile drunk more than a thousand times. "What the hell's the difference if they can't catch you?" the patron said.
Fatality Rates
During the past three seasons, 86 people have died in Wisconsin in snowmobile-related incidents. Forty-nine of those deaths involved alcohol.
"This year we've had 24 funerals resulting from snowmobilers dying in Wisconsin, and that's not just 24 families. That's 24 instances where that's affected a tremendous amount of people, family members, co-workers," Eddy said.
One of those fatalities was CBS 2 anchor Randy Salerno, who was killed in Vilas County on Jan. 24 when he was thrown from a snowmobile driven by a life-long friend, Scott Hirschey. Hirschey's blood alcohol concentration was found to be twice the legal limit, and he faces criminal charges, but only because a fatality was involved. Normally a drunken snowmobiling violation results in a $627 fine.
Lax Penalties Records obtained from the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources revealed 279 drunken snowmobile operators that were caught along the trails since 2003. None of the violators lost their license, and most were only required to pay a fine. Forty-one of those fines were issued to people from Illinois, including two Naperville men and one Aurora man.
Scott T. Larson, of Aurora, was fined last winter. According to Wisconsin records Larson was found guilty for refusing to take a Breathalyzer test and paid a $627 fine. Because Wisconsin does not report the outcome of its operating while intoxicated, or OWI, snowmobile cases to the Department of Motor Vehicles, there is no further penalty and the citation does not go against the operators' driver's license.
Larson's license in Illinois had already been revoked due to two previous driving under the influence arrests in Naperville and a felony conviction for driving with a revoked license. Had the Wisconsin charges counted against Larson's license he could have been facing tougher penalties in court.
Police Feel Helpless A lack of tools to fight drunken snowmobiling leaves trail wardens feeling helpless. Wardens said some bars have police scanners to warn patrons when police are on the trails conducting traffic stops and patrolling for drunken drivers.
Random sobriety tests were outlawed two decades ago because the Wisconsin Legislature saw it as a violation of motorists' privacy to be pulled over without reasonable suspicion.
"You have to have the legal, reasonable suspicion for that stop before you get to the interaction with the driver," said Nina Emerson, director of the Resource Center on Impaired Driving at the University of Wisconsin.
Legislative Proposals Laws enacted in both Michigan and Minnesota tie alcohol-related snowmobiling infractions to drivers' licenses. Deaths have dropped considerably in these states. According to Eddy, Wisconsin now has as many deaths this season as Michigan and Minnesota combined.
Still, attempts at changing the law in Wisconsin to tie drunken snowmobiling citations to a person's driver's license have so far been unsuccessful.
"There has to be some sense that they're going to be detected and they're going to be arrested and they're going to be convicted," Emerson said.
Emerson said a new law treating a drunken snowmobile operator the same as an intoxicated motor vehicle driver would increase the penalty by taking away their drivers license and requiring them to pay court fees and fines.
"People are doing it because they don't get caught," Emerson said. "And it goes on and on and on and they go from bar to bar."
Previous attempts to pass legislation to crack down on drunken snowmobiling stalled due to opposition from special interest groups. Legislative insiders said the Wisconsin Tavern League lobbies hard against any proposed legislation that would toughen alcohol laws. The league has refused repeated attempts to comment on the drunken snowmobiling debate.
Still, Wisconsin state wardens hope lawmakers will look at the death rate and at least change the law, sending a message to drunken snowmobile drivers that they could lose their drivers license if they are caught operating a snowmobile under the influence of alcohol.
"It is going to clean up the image of snowmobiling in Wisconsin and it is going to make the trails safe," Eddy said.
Dan Blom and Michelle Diotallevi contributed to this report.
(© MMVIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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