Drivers ticketed by red light cameras may be sent to traffic school

BY FRAN SPIELMAN~Chicago Sun Times

Motorists nabbed by Chicago’s Big Brother network of red-light cameras already get slapped with $100 fines.

If the City Council’s most powerful alderman has his way, they’ll also have to go back to school — at a cost of $25.

Finance Committee Chairman Edward M. Burke (14th) wants to require red-light runners to complete a “Red Light Education Program” to prevent them from becoming repeat offenders.

At today’s City Council meeting, Burke introduced an ordinance directing the city’s Department of Administrative Hearings to launch a “red light education program”—both on-line and in person—bankrolled by charging red-light runners a $25 fee in addition to the $100 ticket.

Motorists who fail to complete training would pay an additional $50 fine.

Burke noted that teen drivers who receive traffic tickets in Illinois are already required to complete mandatory education programs, contributing, in part, to a 40 percent drop in teen deaths in 2008.

The same sort of drop could be expected from a red-light education course, he said.

“It would help reduce the number of accidents,” Burke said.

“Clearly, when you’re talking about 27 percent of the six million accidents that occur on U.S. roadways every year occurring at intersections, it would seem to be a move in the right direction.”

But what about the cost? Is it fair to ask motorists already nailed with a $100 fine to pay $25 more?

“The focus shouldn’t be on the fee as much as on the educational benefit this could create,” he said.

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