CHICAGO — A controversial camera program that has dramatically reduced the number of train-car collisions at a dangerous Wood Dale railroad crossing may be in jeopardy unless the city finds the money to keep it going after Nov. 30, the Daily Herald reports.
In the three years before Cop-in-the-Box, there were 27 train-vehicle collisions at the railroad crossing at Irving Park and Wood Dale roads, city officials said. Since the cameras were installed in December 1999, there has been one collision, officials said. Because drivers know the cameras are there, they apparently are less likely to drive around a lowered crossing gate.
The two-year pilot camera program should become permanent, said Wood Dale officials, who now must find nearly $100,000 annually – $8,000 a month – to process photographic evidence and maintain equipment.
“We will find the funding,” Wood Dale Mayor Kenneth Johnson said Friday. “This is a public safety issue. It would be counterproductive not to continue it.”
Metra, the commuter train agency, was required to pay for the program only until Nov. 30.
Wood Dale Police Chief Frank Williams estimates the department could issue 60 to 80 tickets a month to drivers who ignore the crossing gates, which would generate about $126,000 a year in fines, enough to run the program. If fines fall short, additional money would have to come from city coffers.
“We may have to wait and see how it fits in with the budget,” said Williams, who also said the program has merit.
Metra officials are talking with the Illinois Commerce Commission and the Illinois Department of Transportation about whether the program will continue; Metra owns the camera equipment and city officials are hoping the agency will donate it to them. Metra spokesman Tom Miller was uncertain when a decision would be made.
State lawmakers in 1996 passed legislation to allow cameras at dangerous crossings in Naperville, Wood Dale and near Winfield.
The program began in December 1999. After one year, Wood Dale had written more than 800 citations.
Last fall the city stopped using cameras and began monitoring the crossing with people instead after a DuPage County judge ruled portions of the Cop-in-the-Box legislation unconstitutional. More than 600 warnings were issued between December 2000 and August 2001 by police who saw motorists drive around lowered crossing gates.
The parts of the law ruled unconstitutional were later rewritten, but Cop-in-the-Box has not started up again in Wood Dale because of equipment problems.
The city gets a lump sum of money from the DuPage County clerk’s office generated by traffic tickets and has no breakdown on the amount received from Cop-in-the-Box fines over nearly two years.