APPLETON, Wis. — Talking to dozens of multiple OWI offenders, Bob Dunkel hopes to be heard.
"No one forces us to drink, no one forces us to drive," he tells them.
Dunkel said when someone is arrested for driving drunk, their concern is often personal.
"My hope is with my story, they hear the other side," Dunkel said.
On October 10, 1997, Dunkel had finished working at his accounting business. That night, he went out with friends. After his group got into a verbal argument with another, Dunkel was punched in the face and fell onto Richmond street. Then, he was run over by a drunken driver.
"She never swerved, she never stopped," Dunkel tells his audience. "She kept going."
Dunkel's story doesn't end there. He spent 28 days in the hospital and six days in a coma. Doctors told his family that he had a million in one chance to live.
"Every ring of the phone could bring news of my death," he said.
Dunkel survived, and for 20 years he's shared his story at local OWI victim impact panels.
"There are dire consequences from drinking and driving," Dunkel said. "It's not an accident, it's a crime."
Outagamie County started the program to reach 2nd or 3rd OWI offenders.
"I think it really opens the eyes and ears of the defendants to let them know that this could have been a lot worse," Judge Vincent Biskupic said.