Teen Charged with OWI after Crashing in New Berlin

A Milwaukee teenager is facing a drunk driving charge after she passed another car on the shoulder while driving 90 miles per hour through town of Waukesha and then crashing into a ditch in New Berlin.

Shannon M. Zelinski, 17, was charged in Tuesday with one count of operating while intoxicated and one count of operating while intoxicated and causing injury. If convicted, she faces up to two years in Waukesha County Jail and $4,000 in fines.

According to the criminal complaint, at 8:37 p.m. Saturday, Zelinski was traveling eastbound on Cleveland Avenue through town of Waukesha at nearly 90 miles per hour and passing another car by driving onto the shoulder of the road. The vehicle followed her car until she eventually crashed into a ditch near 7th Day Adventist Church, 21380 Cleveland Ave.

When police arrived at the crash, Zelinski told them she had four other people in the car with her, but didn’t know where they had gone, according to the complaint. She also told them she was drunk and they had been driving around drinking, with her last memory being one of the friends laying on the ground asking her “what the (expletive) did you do?”

Police then contacted one of the passengers who told them she was having neck pains from the crash and was planning to go to the hospital to be examined. Another passenger told investigators she had fled the vehicle after the crash because she was scared, the complaint states.

Zelinski failed a field sobriety test and had a blood alcohol level of 0.178 percent at the time of the incident, according to the complaint. She’s currently free from Waukesha County Jail on $1,000 cash bail.