A series of three separate inattentive driving incidents over the weekend resulted in two minor personal injury accidents and an arrest for OWI.
The first accident occurred on Friday morning (10/21) at 7:57 a.m. in the area of Hwy 175 and Crooked Rd in the Town of Addison. The driver, a 62-year-old Milwaukee woman, was northbound on Hwy 175 when she observed a bug on her left leg. The driver, losing control of both her emotions and vehicle, traveled off road right and struck an arrow sign, a WE Energies box and an electric pole. The vehicle came to rest .1 mile after the pole. The force of the collision split the pole lengthwise.
The second accident occurred Saturday morning (10/21) at 5:30 am when the driver, identified as an 18-year-old Neosho man, was eastbound on Hubertus Rd and attempted to make a left turn into the Richfield Plaza parking lot. The driver missed the turn and overturned in the ditch. The driver was cited for inattentive driving as he was looking at his cell phone during the turn.
The third accident was in the construction zone on Hwy 175 in the Village of Richfield on Friday afternoon (10/21) at 3:30 pm when the driver, a 30-year-old City of West Bend man, struck a skid loader’s broom attachment. The investigating deputy noted signs of impairment and placed the drive through a series of field sobriety tests. The driver was arrested for first offense OWI with a passenger under the age of 16 as he had his two children, ages 5 and 1, in the vehicle with him along with his wife. Deputies believe prescription drugs and alcohol were contributing factors.
The Sheriff’s Office investigated an accident last Thursday (10/21) at 7:11 p.m. involving a semi-tractor that was being towed to a local repair facility. A heavy duty tow truck was towing a disabled semi southbound on Cth Tk W when the towed semi began to fishtail near the Limestone Creek Bridge south of Allenton. The towed semi, being pulled from behind, entered the west ditch for approximately 100’ then crossed both lanes of traffic and entered the east ditch for about another 100’. The towed semi then crossed both lanes of traffic again and entered the west ditch. According to investigators, the fishtail became unrecoverable and the towed semi began to turn on its side in the west ditch before the tow truck operator could stop. The road had partial lane closures for about 1.5 hours to facilitate clean-up operations. The investigation suggests a contributing factor in the accident was a strap used to keep the steering wheel in place in the towed unit became dislodged which caused the towed semi to start to fishtail.
Captain Martin Schulteis 402/471