17-year-old wrong way drunk driver arrested on Highway 41

BROWN COUNTY -- With the Packers vs. Giants game at Lambeau Field Sunday, the Brown County OWI Task Force was out in full force. Officers made 44 traffic stops and four OWI arrests, and issued 21 citations. One stop was particularly scary! An officer was driving southbound on Highway 41, when he saw headlights coming right at him!

The dashcam video shows it all: a car, driven by a 17-year-old girl from Keshena was headed the wrong way on Highway 41, going 70 miles-an-hour, headed directly toward an Ashwaubenon public safety squad car. "This person was driving down the highway drunk, with no regard for what was really going on," Lt. Jody Crocker said.

Lt. Crocker says the officer in the squad swerved just in time to miss hitting the vehicle - and then turned his squad around and pulled the driver over. "The officer put himself in danger of death and great bodily harm, just to make this stop," Lt. Crocker said.

Officers won't release the name of the driver until she is formally charged. She was cited for OWI, driving without a license, insurance or registration, driving the wrong way on a highway, and driving with an open intoxicant.

Officers say the driver had a blood alcohol level of .174. "This is the reason that we do OWI enforcement. This is an excellent example of someone who needs to not be on the roadways," Lt. Crocker said.

The Ashwaubenon squad was on patrol with the OWI Task Force. Headed by the Wisconsin State Patrol, the Task Force issued four OWI arrests, and two open intoxicant citations. Additionally, officers issued 30 citations on Sunday for speeding more than 80 miles-per-hour. "That's definitely rare. I mean, we see high speeds out there every day, but in that kind of concentration, that's definitely something that surprised us. So it just shows us why we're out there, and hopefully people respect why we're out there in terms of stopping people from going that high over the speed limit," Mike Panosh with the Wisconsin State Patrol said.

Officers say fortunately, a crash on Highway 41 was avoided, but it serves as another reminder to make sure your friends and family stay off the road, when they've had too many.

The officer who made the OWI arrest is the same officer whose squad car was hit during an OWI enforcement stop in October. He was injured in the head and arm, but has since recovered.