Taxi Crash Kills Pedestrian, Injures Passenger
A horrific car crash involving a taxi driver killed one person and injured the taxi’s passenger and driver at Milwaukee & Chicago Avenues early Tuesday morning according to the Chicago Tribune.
The car, according to another cab driver who witnessed the crash, hit a light pole and then hit a pedestrian who was pronounced dead on the scene. The cab caught on fire immediately after the driver and passenger escaped from the vehicle.
The driver has had his taxi license since 1987 and had been ticketed over 30 times according to the Tribune story. But, according to the Illinois Secretary of State, his license was clean.
Here’s the Tribune’s full story, “Pedestrian dies after cab crashes in intersection.”
I’d bet the 30 tickets were for CPD traffic stops and Parking violations.
I think its time….
Time for Chicago to declare an Amnesty on Parking Tickets over 5 years old…and Re-criminalize them.
Along the lines of….if you owe more than 500.00 in outstanding Tickets from 5 years ago to today….a Bench Warrant and License suspension is immediate.
Captain M-Plate wrote:
Along the lines of….if you owe more than 500.00 in outstanding Tickets from 5 years ago to today….a Bench Warrant and License suspension is immediate.
My Comment:
DO you have ANY studies tying parking tickets to bad driving? My view is that the problem is that we seem to treat driving as a right and allow the bad drivers to keep driving. A few years ago I was a witness to (and nearly in) a horrific crash in which a driver in an SUV was racing on Foster at Rush Hour. He lost control, drove down the sidewalk at high speed. Rolled off the curve and into a number of cars including a car containing young children. No one was killed, but a lot of people were hurt. I went to multiple court dates. Finally the day of “judgment” occurred. The guy argued that he needed his car for “school” and the Judge didn’t take away his license, didn’t limit his driving privleges, no mandatory driver education classes or otherwise “keep him out” of the car. The Judge lectured him and told him he was lucky no one was killed. So we have a reckless driver who, only through luck, didn’t actually kill anyone, and he is still allowed to drive on the road. That’s the problem. Driving is a privilege, not a right, and it should be taken away far more frequently than it is — particularly for a young person in the City of Chicago who has MANY transportation options in the form of the CTA, the RTA, PACE and bicycles.
David….since I only deal with Parked Vehicles…I can’t have an informed discussion about Moving Violations that one might get while DRIVING the car.
The Driver of the Taxi had been ticketed over 30 times according to the Story though.
And since there are stricter parking rules in effect for Taxi Cabs in this city than for the average Passenger plated vehicle..it was a safe assumption.
For example….
Between 2am and 7am….Taxi’s can not park on Any Business street except in the 23rd, 46th & 49th Wards, and on Devon and Western in 50th Ward.
Taxi’s can Never Park on a Residential Street at any time of day, excluding the 7th, 10th, 15th, 23rd, 35th, 46th & 50th Wards (there is a Special Taxi Residential parking permit they can get in those wards only for use in those wards only.).
So it is very easy to assume the majority of the 30 tickets were for parking violations.
Now…..when the City of Chicago decriminalized parking tickets (back in the 90′s as I recall)…they opened the Doors of the Barn to the scofflaw. The geek even does the occasional story about the people that have Obscene amounts of outstanding tickets and get booted. So suggesting they get returned to old school is a great way to ensure that tickets get paid. Unless they are contested and the person wins and the ticket is tossed.
I don’t see how parking tickets could ever be rightly criminalized. Criminal offenses require proof of guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Parking tickets require no proof of guilt whatsoever. If you get a ticket, you are guilty, unless the ticket writer was just stupid.