A little-known section of the Illinois Vehicle Code (IVC) allows a police chief to authorize volunteer citizens to ticket violators in handicap parking spaces. Did you know that?
Thanks to a knowledgeable reader of this blog, this section of the IVC (625 ILCS 5/11-1301.7) has come to light. Want to read it? Go to www.ilga.gov Does any police chief in McHenry County allow this?
How many times have you seen an able-bodied driver pull into a handicap space and run into a store "just for a minute"? Say, over at the Jewel-Osco in Woodstock? How many times a week does this happen?
Handicap spaces are for handicapped drivers, and they must display the proper placard or license plate on the vehicle. Having it on the sun visor or in the glove compartment or under a magazine on the car seat doesn't qualify. A placard needs to be hanging from the mirror. A cop would probably pass up writing a ticket if the placard is on the dashboard.
The driver needs to know the rules for parking in the handicap spot. If a driver drops off the handicapped person at the entrance to the building, then the driver is not entitled to park in a handicap space. But they do. Instead, they should leave that space for the driver who is handicapped.
If you are a resident who wants to be a volunteer to write some $250 tickets (all of which goes to the municipality (or the County)), contact Chief Lowen (Woodstock PD), Chief Linder (Crystal Lake) or Sheriff Nygren (McHenry County) or the chief of your town's PD and ask about training and authorization. (In Algonquin and some other places, the fine is $500.)
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3 comments:
The spots aren't just for a disabled driver, they are for a disabled individual. When my mother was alive, I would drive her (my car or hers), park in a reserved space, put the placard up, get the wheelchair out of the trunk, assemble it, get her out of the front seat, and wheel her into the store. She later got a van with a lift, so she wouldn't have to transfer in and out of the car seats. In both cases, we needed the extra space (striped area) of the reserved spaces so the wheelchair and the ramp had plenty of space. Leaving her sitting at the curb so I could get back in the vehicle and go park it someplace else just makes no sense, and frankly, leaving a defenseless, diaabled woman sitting unattended and out of sight while going off to park the car is just criminal.
That's not to say that the reserved spaces aren't abused by people that could very well drop someone off at the curb then go park elsewhere, but it's their call, not mine. Hopefully they have a conscience. But as long as they have the marked plates, or placard, it is legal.
As for the morons that pull in those spaces "just to run in quick"...well, "F them" as they say. I have no problems calling non-emergency police number to report them, or snap a picture to send in. I think the way they compute the number of reserved spaces is ludicrous, and am just as frustrated and mindboggeled as the next guy when I go someplace and there are a dozen empty reserved spots while a dozen cars are waiting for regular spots...but that doesn't give me leave to violate the law so blatantly and publicly.
MBlue, thanks for your comment.
I surely did not mean that a driver should have to drop off a disabled person, instead of parking first. But, if the disabled person wants to be dropped off (or is dropped off) at the entrance and then the driver parks, that driver is violating the parking privilege.
I have even seen able-bodied drivers (without disabled passengers) park in handicap spaces and hang the placard. That one is a $500 violation under the I.V.C.
I agree about the excessive number of marked spaces in some lots, especially company parking lots. There should be a mechanism for reducing the number of unneeded, unused handicap parking spaces.
(625 ILCS 5/11-1301.3) (from Ch. 95 1/2, par. 11-1301.3)
Sec. 11-1301.3. Unauthorized use of parking places reserved for persons with disabilities.
"When using the parking privileges for persons with disabilities,
the parking decal or device must be displayed properly in the vehicle where it is clearly
visible to law enforcement personnel, either hanging from the rearview mirror
or placed on the dashboard of the vehicle in clear view." [Note: emphasis added]
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