Riverside Police Chief Lobbies For Safe Driving, Calls DUI Deaths 'Murder'

Riverside Police Chief Tom Weitzel’s will to hold drunk drivers accountable for their actions on Illinois roadways has brought his name into politics.

Weitzel partnered with State Rep. Michael Zalewski, D-Riverside, this month to propose House Bill 303, which would classify wrong-way driving while impaired as an aggravated offense. Zalewski passed the legislation out of committee on Feb. 9.

One of the reasons Weitzel went to Zalewski, he said in a release from the Riverside Police Department, was because of repeated wrong-way driving accidents in which drivers, either drunk or high on drugs, have killed or “severely maimed” other travelers.

The other reason was more personal.

Steven Smith, 27, a Chicago Ridge police officer, was killed off-duty in a wrong-way drunk driving crash on the Tri-State Tollway on Sep. 13, 2015. But Weitzel doesn’t use the word “killed” to described Smith’s death.

“I would like to make something perfectly clear,” he said in the release. “Officer Smith of the Chicago Ridge Police Department while off-duty was, in fact, murdered.”

Smith died in an accident caused by Sandra Lopez of Kendall County. Lopez, 22, was charged with reckless homicide and aggravated drunk driving after she ran into a car Smith was in at 3:45 a.m. She had been driving the wrong direction for around 8 miles before striking the vehicle head-on, the release stated.

While Zalewski sponsors HB 303, Weitzel has been named the chairman of a new Illinois committee that has a goal of cracking down on impaired drivers statewide.

“We have to work together to protect citizens from people who are driving under the influence,” Zalewski said in the release. “Our roadways should be safe not only for those driving, but also for pedestrians, bicyclists and first responders who are rushing to an emergency.”

For Weitzel, the circumstance of Smith’s death isn’t a situation he’s just seen once.

“Officer Smith was the victim of a drunk driver who got into her car and purposely drove intoxicated for an extended period of time before entering the Tri-State Tollway going the wrong way,” he said. “In my opinion, that should be classified as a murder.”

He said that although some people might disagree with him, he believes that impaired drivers make a conscious decision when they get behind the wheel non-sober.

“It is then that I believe the intent threshold has been met,” he said. “Plain and simple: this is murder. Let’s start calling it what it actually is and maybe society’s tolerable views of impaired driving will begin to change.”

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Photo courtesy of the Riverside PD