Drivers who cause injury or death by disobeying a traffic-control aide, police officer, firefighter or school crossing guard could face up to six months in jail under an ordinance that received preliminary approval Monday from a City Council committee.
The measure was proposed after two city traffic-control aides were struck and killed in the line of duty earlier this year within six weeks of each other.
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“There has been a total disregard for traffic aides, crossing guards, paramedics, police and firemen,” said the proposal’s sponsor, Ald. James Balcer (11th).
The ordinance, which would cover negligence as well as disobedience, would mark the first time that city traffic violations could be punishable by jail sentences, a lawyer for the city said. The ordinance also would impose fines of as much as $1,000.
Ordinances already require drivers to comply with orders from any police officer, traffic-control aide or Fire Department official. But traffic-control aides told members of the council’s Traffic Committee that their directions are frequently disregarded, often by motorists who are talking on cell phones, reading newspapers or driving with dogs on their laps.
Some drivers curse or spit at them, traffic-control aides told aldermen.
After winning Traffic Committee support, the proposal is scheduled to go before the entire council for a vote Wednesday.
Dozens of traffic-control aides in their bright yellow work vests went to Daley Plaza and to City Hall on Monday to share their harrowing stories from Chicago’s streets and demand that officials take action to better protect them.
Among the crowd were the husband, three children, mother, three sisters and brother-in-law of Angela Jaynes Gage. The 39-year-old traffic-control aide was killed by a motorist April 16.
Joseph Cruz, 17, was charged Sunday with reckless homicide in her death and was being held Monday in lieu of $90,000 bail.
Prosecutors said Jaynes Gage had five minutes left in her morning shift when she was killed.
Jaynes Gage, who had held the job since June 2005, was reportedly directing a tractor-trailer to make a left-hand turn from Archer Avenue onto Ashland Avenue when a speeding van disobeyed a red light and clipped the truck, said Cook County Assistant State’s Atty. Heather Weber. The van flipped over and crushed Gage, who was pronounced dead less than two hours later, Weber said.
Jaynes Gage’s mother, Hattie White, said the ordinance would provide some solace.
“These people are doing a job,” White said after the committee meeting. “They need to be respected.”
Jaynes Gage’s husband, Donyal Gage, said he thought the penalties were not strong enough.
He said state lawmakers are considering tougher sanctions. Last week, the Illinois House passed a bill that would put reckless drivers behind bars for at least three years if they cause a death by ignoring a police officer or traffic-control aide. The legislation is now before state senators.
“It’s a little too late for us, but other families, maybe they can be spared the pain we had to go through,” Gage said. “Hopefully, we won’t hear any more horror stories.”
In the other fatal accident, on March 7 Julian Alamillo was directing traffic at Grand and Kilpatrick Avenues when a vehicle pulled out of the center lane to speed up and cut ahead of cars in front.
Alamillo, 44, was struck by the vehicle and died three days later when his family chose to take him off life support.
Franklin Sierra, 41, of Chicago, was cited by the city for driving left of the center lane and injuring a pedestrian in the roadway and by the state for driving without a driver’s license, according to Jenny Hoyle, spokeswoman for the city’s Law Department.
Hoyle said Sierra’s case probably would be transferred to the state’s attorney’s office, which may seek jail time for driving without a license.
Alamillo’s niece, Raquel Alamillo, and her family attended the committee meeting and concluded that the penalties proposed by the ordinance were too light.
“It’s still not going to be enough to make drivers think,” she said. “There has to be something, you know, like those construction-worker signs on the expressway [that] everybody knows about. You need to have drivers become aware.”
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