Weather
Local NewsRaw Video: Former Drugged Driver Changes Her WaysBy Katie DeLong
MILWAUKEE - She was arrested three times for driving under the influence, but now she's changed her ways.
She tells us what she thinks it would take to stop impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel.
Linda Resch crashed her car three times after driving while high on prescription drugs. She blacked out each time and can't remember what happened.
Now, she's sharing her story with the hopes of helping someone else.
Resch gets emotional when she talks about the past. She used to get 200 prescription pain and sleeping pills at a time, take several at once, at get behind the wheel.
“To this day I cannot remember the accidents, so that's what the drugs did to me. They impaired me to that ability that I do not remember the accidents at all,” Resch said.
Click on the link under related content to see an interview with Linda Resch.
A newspaper article about her graduation from Waukesha County's alcohol treatment court reminds Resch just how far she's come.
“I’m a huge advocate of treatment,” Resch said.
Resch was sentenced to alcohol treatment court after her third accident. She believes tougher state laws would have stopped her from driving impaired a lot sooner.
“I think that if I had been scared and spent a long time in jail I would have been more cautious and would have realized I had a problem,” Resch said.
She's disturbed about the recent rash of high profile deadly crashes involving impaired drivers.
“It's heartbreaking. Very heartbreaking,” Resch said.
She encourages addicts who get arrested for impaired driving to enroll in the alcohol treatment court, because she's now recently married and staying sober.
“I'd love to see other people who are addicts or alcoholics have what I have today,” Resch said.
Resch wants impaired drivers to enroll in alcohol treatment court after two arrests instead of three. She'd also like to see longer jail sentences.
Repeat offenders of drugged or drunk driving are a problem in Waukesha County. From January to June of last year, 166 people were arrested three separate times each for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
More than 27,000 people want to take cars away from repeat drunk and drugged drivers.
Click on the link under related content to sign the petition.
|
On Demand |
