DWI driver's license suspended 24 times

BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) - Police say a drunk driver reached speeds close to 100 miles per hour -- but that's just the tip of the iceberg.

The driver from Buffalo already had bench warrants out for his arrest --- and 24 active suspensions on his license. So how did he manage to continue driving?

The simple answer to that question is his prior punishments just didn't stop him from getting behind the wheel again. But Anthony Watson is locked up for now.

Imagine heading down the Kensington Expressway at 11 a.m. on New Year's Day, and you're sharing the road with a drunk driver going nearly 100 miles per hour.

The driver was 34 year old Anthony Watson, who hasn't held a valid drivers license in 4 years.

Watson was pulled over going 93 miles per hour on the 33, where the speed limit is 55. He refused to take a breath test. But according to the police report, he told the trooper he drank a lot of vodka and champagne.

Troopers say he failed a number of sobriety tests and told them he was just driving to a friend's house.

"How is this guy still driving?" News 4 reporter Lou Raguse asked.

"Poor judgment and apparently not deterred from operating a motor vehicle," Trooper Jack Moretti of the NY State Police said.

According to the Department of Motor Vehicles, Watson first had his license revoked in 1997 when he refused a chemical test. The next year it was revoked again when he was in an uninsured accident. He was convicted of drunk driving in 2000 and 2006, which resulted in his license revoked again.

But apparently, according the DMV, he never lost his license in that time. And he kept racking up license suspensions -- 10 times for failing to pay a fine. 9 times for failing to answer summons. And also for failing to pay fees. Finally in 2008 he was forced to surrender his license.

You might think it's pretty incredible he was still on the road. But troopers say it's not unusual for someone to keep driving and keep getting in trouble.

"Not unusual. It does occur. Repeat offenders - it does happen. And sometimes the penalties and fines don't deter operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated," Moretti said.

Watson is currently behind bars at the Erie County Holding Center on $3500 cash bail. He'll be back in court Jan. 8.