By Shereen Siewert
A 24-year-old Marathon man convicted of his first OWI in April is facing a felony drunken driving charge after allegedly rolling his pickup, injuring a passenger.
The Marathon County Sheriff’s Department was notified at about 5:45 a.m. June 3 that a pickup had rolled over on Whippoorwill Road at Hollywood Road in the town of Marathon before the driver continued traveling westbound toward Hwy. O. The investigating deputy located the smashed-up vehicle on Fourth Street in Marathon City minutes later, according to court filings.
The alleged driver, Austin Weith, was injured in the crash, as was his 24-year-old passenger, police said.
The deputy noted a strong odor of alcohol while interviewing Weith, who performed poorly on sobriety tests and had a preliminary breath test result of 0.167, according to the police report. Court records show Weith was convicted of first-offense drunken driving on April 16, less than two months before the crash, and was driving with a revoked license.
Weith faces criminal charges of second offense drunken driving-causing injury and operating while revoked. Because he was out on bond for an unrelated domestic incident at the time of the crash, he also faces a bail jumping charge. Officers cited Weith for operating left of center and failing to notify police of an accident, according to court records.
An initial court appearance was held June 3. Court records show Weith is free on a $5,000 signature bond with a preliminary hearing set for July 24.
