Oakbrook Terrace fights back after red light camera permit for busy intersection revoked by IDOT

Plastic baggage now cowl the cameras at Route 83 and twenty second Road, however the village is threatening to show them again on.

A particular element of officers began patrolling this intersection in particular person Thursday because the Illinois Division of Transportation informed them flip off the purple mild cameras right here final week.

“Because the inception of the cameras in 2017, foremost for residents of this group, it has been about security,” Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Paul Esposito mentioned.

The mayor says the cameras had been producing as much as 1,500 tickets every week at one of many busiest intersections within the state.

Contractors lined the cameras right here with hoods final week at IDOT’s request, however now Oakbrook Terrace is preventing again.

Their attorneys wrote a letter to IDOT objecting to eradicating the cameras, claiming IDOT has no authority to take the cameras down as a result of the village is a Residence Rule Group. They usually say the crash knowledge IDOT claimed it must justify the cameras for 2019 via 2021 comes from IDOT, however the company has not but launched the info.

A spokesperson for IDOT says the company’s purple mild digicam “…coverage permits IDOT to take away such cameras whether it is in the perfect curiosity of the motoring public. It stays IDOT’s place revocation of the allow is in accord with the regulation.”

Luke Pennings bought a $100 purple mild digicam ticket within the mail simply final week for making what he says was a authorized proper activate purple. He says the cameras are unfair and ineffective.

“I believe they are a deterrent,” Pennings mentioned. “Do I believe they make it safer? No. I do not suppose they make it any safer in anyway.”

The previous mayor of Oakbrook Terrace, Tony Ragucci, is now beneath federal indictment for prices associated to allegedly accepting bribes from the corporate that put in the purple mild cameras. That firm, SafeSpeed, mentioned they weren’t conscious of any of the actions specified by the allegations in opposition to Ragcci. IDOT, nevertheless, makes no point out of Ragucci of their choice to take away the cameras.

“We have gone on, moved ahead and we’ve got not been in touch with the previous mayor,” Esposito mentioned. “My residents are for this digicam and the security of that intersection.”

The mayor of Oakbrook Terrace says the village reached out to IDOT to attempt to resolve the problem and restore the cameras. They are saying they haven’t but heard again from IDOT. Within the meantime. officers will proceed to patrol the intersection.

Assertion from SafeSpeed

SafeSpeed’s purpose has at all times been to offer a service that helps save lives. As new developments in federal investigations come to mild, SafeSpeed stays each shocked and saddened that one in every of its former colleagues was engaged in legal conduct and recruited outdoors people to assist additional his self-serving actions. Their actions had been clearly in their very own self-interest and performed with out SafeSpeed’s data and undercut the essential work SafeSpeed does.

The legal exercise of some people doesn’t and shouldn’t mirror the values and integrity of SafeSpeed, its staff, and its shoppers. SafeSpeed constructed its enterprise on integrity and ethics, and it holds its staff and representatives to the best requirements of conduct and ethics. SafeSpeed has lengthy since terminated all contact with its former colleague and his associates.

SafeSpeed stays dedicated to persevering with to help Illinois municipalities in bettering site visitors security. SafeSpeed absolutely helps the federal authorities’s investigation into public corruption and can proceed to assist their efforts in any approach it might probably.