Will Illinois try a high-tech solution to ‘super speeders’?

So-called “super speeders” could have a chance to get back behind the wheel, minus their lead feet, under legislation awaiting Gov. JB Pritzker’s signature.

House Bill 4948 would create the Intelligent Speed Assistance Program, allowing a driver convicted of speeding 26 mph or more above the limit twice in 12 months to keep driving, but with a high-tech speed control device installed in their vehicle.

The measure, which passed both chambers of the General Assembly this spring, was introduced by state Rep. Martha Deuter of Elmhurst. She told us Thursday that the traditional means of dealing with super speeders — suspending or revoking their licenses — doesn’t often keep them off the roads.

“What we know is that 75% of people who have their licenses suspended continue to drive,” the Democratic lawmaker said. “License suspensions as a tool to eliminate speeding doesn’t work.”

Among the bill’s supporters are Families for Safe Streets, whose draft proposal served as the basis for Deuter’s legislation, and AAA.

Nick Jarmusz, AAA's director of public affairs, said speeding is a factor in 45% of fatal crashes in Illinois. And the Land of Lincoln was one of only 10 states — and the lone Midwest state — not to see a drop in fatal crashes last year.

“License suspensions and revocations have a place in the tool box, but we know there are limitations to that,” Jarmusz told us. “We have to use all the tools available to us to push those numbers (of fatalities) down.”

How it works

Under the law, a driver whose license is suspended for two 26+ mph speeding violations could apply to the secretary of state’s office for permission to join the program.

If approved, the driver would have to pay for professional installation of an approved speed control device, plus a $30 monthly fee. A driver with a first suspension would have to leave the device in for a year. A second suspension would mean a 24-month installation, and a third would mean three years of driving with the device.

The driver would be prohibited from driving a vehicle without a device, and tampering with or circumventing it would be a Class A misdemeanor, under the bill.

Cincinnati-based LifeSafer is among the companies that make speed control devices, along with ignition lock breathalyzers sometimes placed on vehicles of convicted drunk drivers.

Company President Michael Travars said the device uses built-in GPS and mapping to determine the speed limit where a vehicle is operating. It then limits the vehicle to that speed, no matter how hard the driver presses down on the accelerator.

Exceptions can be programmed into the device, like allowing a driver to exceed the limit by 10 mph for 20 seconds in case they need to speed up to merge onto an expressway, Travars said.

“You get 12 months to experience what good driving is and hopefully create safe driving habits that stick,” he said. “People get used it and like it because it prevents them from making those same mistakes.”

If Pritzker signs the legislation, Illinois will become the fifth state with such a law on the books, joining New York, Virginia, Washington and Hawaii.

Deuter said she hasn’t heard from the governor’s office about his plans for the legislation, but believes its broad support — it passed 77-24 in the House and 49-9 in the Senate — works in its favor.

More Broadview 6 fallout

The Chicago region’s top federal prosecutor is promising major changes in the wake of embarrassing revelations last week about improprieties in the way his office presented a high-profile case to a grand jury.

U.S. Attorney Andrew S. Boutros announced “sweeping internal reforms” to the office’s grand jury practices and disclosures, saying they represent the most substantial changes to those procedures in decades.

The announcement comes after his office dismissed all charges against the “Broadview 6” defendants, who were accused of impeding a federal officer during protests last year outside a suburban U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention center.

Boutros dropped the case last Thursday after it was disclosed that prosecutors acted improperly during the grand jury proceedings that led to indictments against the six, a group of political activists that included former 9th District congressional candidate Kat Abughazaleh.

Those improprieties included a prosecutor personally vouching for the strength of the case; a prosecutor having “substantive” contact with grand jurors outside the grand jury room; and a prosecutor excusing grand jurors who disagreed with the case.

In a news release Wednesday, Boutros said the reforms establish clear expectations and rules for his prosecutors, and require increased and expanded education about grand jury presentations.

“These are clear, bright line rules that everyone must abide by, which should streamline and simplify the decision-making and disclosure process, as opposed to bedevil it,” he said. “It also should all but eliminate points of contention between federal prosecutor and defense counsel as it relates to these grand jury issues.”

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