Plainfield adds two red-light cameras
PLAINFIELD -- The village will flip the switch on two red-light cameras in late November or early December.
The cameras are at Renwick Road and Route 30 and at 135th Street and Route 59.
A sign alerting drivers to the camera is already in place at Renwick Road and Route 30.
A third camera, planned at Route 126 and Route 59, will not be installed yet because of the state construction project to widen Route 59, said Police Chief Don Bennett. Once the roadwork is finished, the camera may be installed.
Police requested cameras for the chosen intersections because they are the some of the most crash-prone in town.
Another dicey intersection, Route 59 and Renwick Road, was passed up for a camera because of the Route 59 widening project.
Only warning tickets will be issued from the cameras for 30 days after they start snapping pictures, Bennett said.
Getting the cameras approved by the Illinois Department of Transportation took longer than expected, village officials have said.
Village Board members signed off on the red-light camera system in June 2008, approving a contract with LaserCraft for automated red-light enforcement and a new ordinance regulating the cameras.
The system will be leased from LaserCraft, paid for with fines from violators.
Each alleged violation recorded by the cameras will be reviewed by police. If found to be a violation, the offender will get a citation in the mail.
People who are ticketed will be able to see their alleged violation online before having to pay any fine, which will probably be $100, and will be able to contest the ticket.
To avoid problems other communities have faced, the village is choosing to fix its lens on the people who blow through red lights, not the ones making right turns on red.
Enforcing illegal right turns on red, and the complaints it generated, prompted Schaumburg to switch off one of its cameras near Woodfield mall earlier this year.
Bolingbrook deactivated its cameras in 2007, six months after turning them on. Drivers complained about right-turn-on-red tickets, but officials said the cameras weren't supposed to be permanent, and that they reduced crashes.
