Updated: Walker Signs Bill that Makes it a Felony to Drive Without a License and Injure Someone

Gov. Scott Walker signed legislation on Dec. 15 at the  that toughens penalties for driving without a valid license and injuring someone by charging them with a felony. 

The bill was created and introduced at the request of former Greendale Police Chief Robert Dams and his family. An unlicensed driver killed Dams’ 20-year-old son, Nicholas Dams, in 2005 and the driver was only issued traffic citations. Since then Dams took it on as a personal fight to make sure legislation like the one being signed tomorrow gets passed.

, "You're knowingly breaking the law by operating a vehicle and you kill somebody, it should be a homicide. It's vehicular homicide. It's not an accident because you shouldn't have been driving."

During the press conference on Thursday morning Walker accidentally called Nicholas by the wrong name Alex. He said it slipped because he felt emotionally attached to this issue being that his son's name is Alex Nicholas and felt for the family of Nicholas Dams by creating a "bond" with the issue.

Walker said the measure passed by a large margin.

"It’s not just remembering the victims or their families, but it's to also to send a clear message whose operating a vehicle right now without license to not do that," Walker said. "That’s already something that should be obvious."

Under the new law a person knowingly driving without a license or a suspended license and cause harm to another person that results in injury or death faces up to three and half years in prison and up to $10,000 in fines.

Walker said that it probably won't cause high number of imprisonments, but hopes that it will keep unlicensed drivers off the road.

"The greater hope that it is a deterrent because for whatever reason over time in society people have felt that driving without a license or after revocations wasn’t a big deal," Walker said.

Dams fought for six years to get this bill passed and says that this year the bill got to the right people in Madison.

“Chief Robert Dam’s admirable response to this needless tragedy has been to tirelessly work over the years to make sure that such a loss would be less likely to happen to another family...Nick’s Law is a testament that with persistence and perseverance one person can make a difference and help make sure that such personal tragedy is not visited upon others,” said State Senator Tim Carpenter, one of the that co-sponsored the bill, in a press release.

"It’s something we had to do for other people that may unfortunately have to go through the same tragedy we did...I wasn't going to give up," Dams said.

Present at the press conference were state representatives Jeff Stone and Peggy Krusick as well as State Sen. Mary Lazich. 

"The only way to get things done is to go to Madison and keep on trying," Dams said.