Man Gets 32 Years For Drunk Driving Crash That Killed 3 Family Members In Wisconsin
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Timothy Vandervere, of Beach Park, has been sentenced to 32 years in prison in Wisconsin, for a drunk driving crash that killed three members of the same family, and injured another in April.
Vandervere, 40, pleaded "no contest" in September to three counts of vehicular homicide and one count of injury by drunk driving. He was sentenced to 9 years each for the vehicular homicide charges, and 5 years for the injury by drunk driving charge, and a judge ordered the sentences to be served consecutively.
Police said his blood alcohol level was 0.316 – nearly four times the legal limit – and was driving 100 mph on a revoked license on April 5, when he crashed his white GMC pickup truck into a Jeep Cherokee on Highway 50 in Bristol, Wisconsin.
Dr. Vincent Rizzo, 76; his wife, Mary Rizzo, 74; and his brother, Dr. Michael Rizzo, 67, were killed in the crash. Another brother, 72-year-old Gerald Rizzo, who was driving the Jeep, was seriously injured.
"Mr. Vandervere was traveling at such a high speed that he crushed the rear end of Mr. Rizzo's car and hit him with such velocity and force that it propelled Mr. Rizzo's car forward causing it to flip over," Kenosha Deputy District Attorney Angelina Gabriele said at the time Vandervere was charged.
Vandervere had a prior conviction for injury by drunk driving in 2005. He held a valid Illinois driver's license, but his Wisconsin license had been revoked.
