5-time repeat drunk driver busted again
By Tamara Cherry
Toronto Sun
March 29, 2008

William "Billy" Rozema wasn't allowed behind the wheel for at least nine more years.
But the 52-year-old serial drunk driver is before the courts once again facing a slew of charges -- drunk driving included.

The trucker was found hiding in a Scugog corn field Thursday night after police say he slammed his bobtail rig into a car and tore through Durham Region at more than 140 km/h.

"He was laughing and told the officers to, 'Relax. It isn't a big deal,' " Durham Regional Police Sgt. Paul McCurbin said of Rozema's arrest.

Police were called to Regional Rd. 57 and Hwy. 2 where a tractor trailer cab had rear-ended a car just before 6 p.m.

The rig was found speeding northbound along Regional Rd. 57, swerving into the southbound lanes, forcing oncoming traffic off the road, police said. Lights and sirens on, a police cruiser followed it for about 6 km before an unmarked cruiser followed the rig for another 20 km.

The truck pulled into a corn field at McKee Rd. and the driver fled on foot. A police helicopter located the suspect while ground officers seized marijuana and an opened bottle of rum from beneath the driver's seat, police said.

Rozema, of no fixed address, faces several charges including impaired driving -- he allegedly blew more than twice the legal limit -- and driving while disqualified.

According to a legal source, Rozema has been convicted of impaired driving five times before.

And while his driving record shows he hasn't had a valid driver's licence since May 2002, his most recent impaired driving conviction stems from an April 9, 2007 incident, for which driving privileges were suspended until July 9, 2017.

In May 2005, Rozema again had his licence suspended for failing to complete a remedial program.

"These repeat drunk drivers are a cancer on society that we've got to remove," Ontario Provincial Police Sgt. Cam Woolley said. "The courts just keep letting them back out... I don't know what it's going to take to deal with these people appropriately."

Five years ago, a 37-year-old man from northern Ontario made Canadian legal history when he was designated a long-term offender -- something historically reserved for violent or sex offenders -- after more than 20 convictions related to drinking and driving.
Woolley thinks the same should go for someone like Rozema.

"Some of these folks that are apparently incorrigible will have to be permanently (incarcerated) or incarcerated for a long term," Woolley said.

"It doesn't matter if they have a suspended licence," said Andrew Murie, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "He's going to drive. He's going to put other people at risk. One of these times he's going to kill somebody.

'FINES DON'T WORK'

"Suspensions don't work. Fines don't work," Murie said. "All the traditional things that work for the vast majority of the population don't work for this group.

"If this guy had sexually assaulted a woman five times... do you think he'd be treated like this?" Murie said. "(Impaired driving) is the number one criminal cause of death in this country and yet, we still treat it like... a white collar crime."