The Cook County Sheriff’s Office is stepping up enforcement efforts against a common infraction on Chicago-area expressways.
It’s something many people have witnessed.
You’re sitting in traffic, inching along, when someone zooms along the shoulder, breaking the rules and creating a dangerous situation.
Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said he has been one of those people stuck in traffic, so he and others came up with an idea to stop it.
The sheriff’s police use a helicopter above the expressway, and place officers along ramps or the shoulder. The helicopter can get video and very clear pictures of the driver and the license plates.
“Once we say there’s a helicopter, they aren’t thinking that can zoom in. It’s quite as quick. And then what we do is we send photographs of their car down to them as they’re demanding that they be given a pass because it clearly couldn’t have been them,” Dart explained. “And then we’re actually often pointing out how good they look in this picture. And that’s a really good angle of you. And then they start getting quieter.”
The fine for driving on the shoulder can be up to $1,000, and judges are often sentencing drivers to community service in addition to the fine.
The sheriff’s office carried out similar enforcement efforts last year, and at that time reiterated using the shoulder to bypass slower traffic is illegal.
Authorities said the move is “dangerous” and “can catch other drivers by surprise,” leading to what they said are often “devastating accidents.”
In a Facebook post this week, the Cook County Sheriff’s Office said it will be conducting additional patrols from Friday through May 26. The patrols are funded through a grant from the Illinois Department of Transportation.
