Lieutenant uses squad to stop wrong-way driver on Highway 51

Every day, police officers and deputies put their lives on the line to protect the citizens of our community. Patrol Lieutenant Michael Remington, an 11-year veteran of the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, did exactly that when he put his own squad car in the path of a wrong-way driver on U.S. Highway 51 on Oct. 29, 2026, to keep the vehicle from hurting other drivers.
At about 7:23 p.m. that Thursday, the Lincoln County 911 Dispatch Center started getting a flood of calls about a driver going the wrong way on Highway 51. The vehicle had come south from Oneida County into Lincoln County in the northbound lanes. Callers said it was weaving all over the road.
Soon after, a deputy found the vehicle near mile marker 225 in the Town of Skanawan, still heading south in the northbound lanes. The deputy turned on the squad’s emergency lights and siren and tried to stop the vehicle, but the driver kept going.
The deputy then planned a pursuit intervention technique, a maneuver to force the vehicle to spin out. Heavy traffic and the location made that unsafe, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Out of concern for everyone else on the road, Patrol Lieutenant Remington deliberately placed his squad in the vehicle’s path with his emergency lights on, according to the Sheriff’s Office. The wrong-way vehicle struck the Lieutenant’s occupied squad and a civilian car. The Lieutenant and the civilian driver both had relatively minor injuries. The squad car was heavily damaged. Highway 51 was shut down for almost two hours because of the crash.

“Our Lieutenant clearly saved several people that night,” said Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office 911 Lieutenant Grant Peterson.
The Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office released a short clip of the incident, including the impact when the wrong-way driver crashed into Patrol Lieutenant Remington’s squad car. It is jarring to watch and a solemn reminder of the lengths some officers will go to in the line of duty. The remainder of the video is not yet available to the public, as the investigation is still ongoing. The video can be seen on the Merrill Foto News Facebook page. 
“The video of the crash is something. The pictures don’t do the incident justice,” Peterson said.
The driver, 80-year-old Rory Hofmann of Grafton, was taken into custody at the scene.
The Wisconsin State Patrol is handling the crash reports.

Charges and court appearance
Online court records show the state has charged Hofmann with four felonies:
• First-degree recklessly endangering safety, a Class F felony.
• Two counts of fleeing or eluding an officer causing bodily harm or property damage, Class G felonies.
• Operating while intoxicated causing injury, second or subsequent offense, a Class H felony.

Lincoln County also cited Hofmann for driving the wrong way on a divided highway, with a bond of $326.50. He was cited for reckless driving endangering safety, with a bond of $999.50, and for unsafe lane deviation, with a bond of $175.30.
Hofmann appeared in court just before 2 p.m. Nov. 2 before Judge Galen Bayne-Allison. Attorney Jacob Collinsworth represented the state. Attorney Remington made a special appearance for Hofmann and entered not-guilty pleas to the traffic citations.
Bayne-Allison set a $1,000 cash bond and a $9,000 signature bond for Hofmann. Under his bond conditions, Hofmann must:
• Stay completely sober, with no alcohol, illegal drugs, or prescription drugs that haven’t been prescribed to him.
• Stay out of any business whose main purpose is selling alcohol.
• Wear a personal sobriety monitor before he is released from jail.
• Not drive any vehicle, whatever the status of his license.
Hofmann’s next court date is a telephone scheduling conference at 8:30 a.m. Nov. 19.
Note: Criminal charges are only allegations. A defendant is presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.