GREEN BAY (NBC 26) — Even in a year many of us stayed at home, drunken driving was still a problem.
Now one father and police sergeant says even after 12 years, it doesn’t get any easier to mourn his daughter’s death.
“It was a first offense driver who was driving recklessly racing another car on the night of June 3rd 2008 that killed our daughter Ashley and her good friend Talia,” said Sgt. Mike Knetzger.
Every year innocent lives are claimed as a result of careless drivers who get behind the wheel.
“It would’ve been her 30th Birthday on December 27th and she was enrolled AT NWTC in the nursing program. Her goal was to be a Neo-natal nurse," said Sgt. Knetzger.
With so much potential and hope for the future, this sergeant’s daughter now an empty seat at the dining table.
"Now she won’t be given that opportunity to make a difference in the lives of others. To live out that American dream, to have a family, to have a house", said Sgt. Knetzger.
According to Green Bay Police, in 2020 there were 452 arrests related to operating while intoxicated. This number just slightly lower than in 2019 when there were 553 arrests.
Officials also noting that when Covid first hit, their enforcement also slightly decreased.
“To say our numbers are going down? Maybe. There were also a couple months where we really didn’t have the enforcement action that we would have," said LT. Mike Sobieck.
“The past three years we trended down with OWI enforcement. This year to say we’re trending down, there’s so many factors with Covid that it is sort of unknown, because we didn’t have the enforcements out there and the couple months where the bars were closed down it changes it,” said Lt. Sobieck.
With consequences so big, Knetzer said as a parent and sergeant, he wouldn’t want anyone to go through what he did.
“I’ve been impacted by it firsthand. In my 27 years of law enforcement experience I’ve gone to way too many drunk driving crashes and serious injury cases. If people would see it from our perspective through not only the windshield of our squad car but our personal perspective of loss. Then maybe on a more societal level people would look at it differently," Sgt. Knetzger said.
