Brookfield Man Charged With Driving Wrong Way on Freeway at 100 MPH

A 21-year-old Brookfield man is accused of driving the wrong way down I-43 Saturday morning, leading Milwaukee County sheriff’s deputies on a chase to near the Racine County line to catch up with him.

Joshua P. Klawikowski was charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court Wednesday with one count of second-degree reckless endangerment of safety. If convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and $25,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint:

Early Saturday morning, the Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Department began receiving numerous calls about a person driving south in the northbound lanes of I-43 just south of downtown. Officers used traffic cameras to find the car and saw it as it continued heading south the wrong way all the way through the Mitchell Interchange.

As the car approached West Rawson Avenue, a deputy in the southbound lanes went to drive parallel to the car in order to get the attention of the driver, reaching speeds of 100 mph. Klawikowski continued driving south, passing another sheriff’s deputy heading northbound and forcing cars to swerve out of the way.

Klawikowski then did a U-turn south of West Ryan Road and began to drive north. A deputy found him just south of West College Avenue and pulled him over.

Klawikowski was the only person in the car and ordered out to perform field sobriety tests, which he failed. Deputies asked Klawikowski if her knew where he was and he looked at a nearby Amtrak sign and said he was at the Amtrak station.

Klawikowski was arrested at 2:30 a.m. and an Intoximeter test given to him an hour later showed he had a blood alcohol level of 0.18, which is more than twice the legal limit to drive in Wisconsin.

Klawikowski is currently being held in Milwaukee County Jail while awaiting trial.