The final step in the long-running controversy over the red-light cameras at Route 83 and 22nd Street in Oakbrook Terrace will begin soon.
An order from DuPage County Judge Craig Belford was signed May 26, requiring the removal of the cameras on southbound Route 83 and eastbound 22nd Street. Oakbrook Terrace deactivated the cameras May 26, according to Oakbrook Terrace spokesperson Lissa Druss.
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She said the record on appeal is due to be filed with the appellate court on or before Monday August 7.
Druss said Oakbrook Terrace’s brief is due 35 days after the record on appeal is filed with the appellate court.
The Illinois Department of Transportation’s brief is due 35 days after Oakbrook Terrace’s brief is filed, and a reply brief from Oakbrook Terrace is due 14 days after IDOT’s response brief is filed, Druss said.
If the appellate court grants oral argument, a notice of the date and time of the argument will be sent to the parties, she said.
Once all the briefs have been filed and any oral argument has been held, the appellate court will issue its written opinion.
“We are confident that the Appellate Court will confirm the ruling that the cameras must be removed, but this won’t be completely over until that happens,” said Michael Manzo, the Oak Brook Village Board member who consistently has been the most outspoken against the red-light cameras. “These cameras never should have been put up in the first place. It’s always been about money, rather than safety. It’s been a long road since they were requested by Oakbrook Terrace and installed, but we are very pleased with the court’s recent ruling that they had to remove the cameras and are looking forward to the Appellate Court affirming that decision.”
The original May 2022 directive to Oakbrook Terrace by the Illinois Department of Transportation to get rid of the cameras was met with a June 1, 2022, lawsuit filed by Oakbrook Terrace against the state agency and an Aug. 21. 2022 order by Belford, allowing Oakbrook Terrace to reactivate the cameras, pending a final disposition in the case.
Oakbrook Terrace collected more than $12 million in revenue from violations in the just under five years of operation of the red-light cameras, leading up to IDOT’s direction to deactivate, SafeSpeed, the company with which Oakbrook Terrace contracted to install and operate the cameras, collected slightly more than $7.6 million for the approximately five years during which the cameras initially operated.
An additional total of just under $278,000 for the months of September, October and November 2022 was generated for Oakbrook Terrace from violations, after Belford’s ruling to allow the cameras to be temporarily reactivated.
Along with providing an update on the appeal via email July 25, Druss also wrote, “In the meantime, 3,000 drivers a month run the red lights at the intersection of Illinois Route 83 and 22nd Street, needlessly endangering the safety of motorists at that intersection.”
When asked to provide a source for the statement of 3,000 drivers a month running red lights and a response to the question asking how many crashes have occurred at the intersection as a result of that, Druss replied that the 3,000 crashes per month is an underestimated average, based on historical data supplied by SafeSpeed, the company with which Oakbrook Terrace contracted with to install and operate the red-light cameras. She did not provide any data when asked how many crashes have occurred as a result of drivers running red lights.
“SafeSpeed’s numbers under report the number of drivers running the red lights at the intersection because the cameras only monitored two of the four approaches to the intersection,” Druss stated.
Oak Brook Village Manager Greg Summers said there is more to the Oakbrook Terrace estimate of 3,000 drivers a month running red lights at the intersection.
“While they estimate that 3,000 drivers a month run the red lights at the intersection, they fail to mention the full picture of essential realities,” he said. “While Oakbrook Terrace has not supplied their data to me to pull together localized counts, other data sources (Clermont,
The Daily Herald has documented that 88% to 90% of red-light camera violations result from rolling right turn movements.
The total number of citations issued for red-light camera violations between Aug. 22, 2022, after Belford’s order allowed the cameras to be turned back on, and Dec. 31, 2022, came to an average of about 82 each day, based on a response to a Freedom of Information Act request with Oakbrook Terrace. Of those, about 67% occurred on the right-turn lanes, according to the city.
Summers said that data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration report, Analysis of Crossing Path Crashes (www.thenewspaper.com/rlc/docs/2009/01-crosscrash.pdf) demonstrates that only 1.2% of crashes occur at right hand turns. Rolling right turn violations have been proven to have almost no discernible effect on traffic safety.”
Summers said the 2001 National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation statistics (www.motorists.org/issues/red-light-cameras/rolling-right-turns/) demonstrate that “an average motorist could drive a billion miles — the distance from Earth to Jupiter and back — before being involved in an accident that resulted from a motorist making a right-turn-on-red.”
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Chuck Fieldman is a freelance reporter for Pioneer Press.