Legislation proposed by Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White to crack down on excessive speeders was approved 5-0 by the House Judiciary II Criminal Law Committee.  The legislation now goes to the full House for its consideration.

House Bill 6463, sponsored by State Representative John D’Amico (D-Chicago), will prohibit the issuance of court supervision to drivers ticketed for speeding 40 or more miles-per-hour above the posted speed limit.

“No driver has any business driving over 100 miles-per-hour on the interstate,” said White.  “Excessive speeders pose a greater risk to the public, and such reckless behavior does not merit court supervision.”

Published reports show that more than 40 percent of drivers ticketed statewide since 2006 for driving in excess of 100 miles-per-hour received court supervision.  In the Chicagoland area, 63 percent received court supervision.

White has continually worked to improve traffic safety laws, particularly those involving court supervision.  Over the last decade, he has worked to limit the issuance of court supervision, as well as to better track the dispositions of court supervision.

White initiated legislation that took effect January 1, 2006, limiting drivers to two court supervisions for moving violations in a 12-month period.  Any other moving violation a driver is found guilty of during that period now results in a conviction, reported to the motorist’s permanent driving record.  Studies conducted by White’s office showed a small percentage of drivers were abusing the system and receiving court supervision more than a dozen times in one year, keeping their offenses off their permanent records and stopping White from suspending their driving privileges for those violations.

White also initiated legislation that took effect October 1, 2000, that authorized the Secretary of State’s office to establish a centralized database, to electronically track court supervisions from all 102 counties.  Prior to this law, courts did not share this information with one another, making it impossible for a judge in one county to know whether a driver had been granted court supervision anywhere else.  Now, judges and prosecutors have access to the driver’s complete driving history.

White pushed for the law, following an investigation of a deadly crash between a semi-trailer truck and an Amtrak passenger train in Bourbonnais, IL, in 1999.  The investigation found that the driver of the truck had an established track record of using court supervisions in multiple jurisdictions, to avoid punishment for poor driving.