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Disregarding an Official Traffic-Control Device, ILCS 11-305-20

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  • 04-16-2014, 07:04 AM
    spoons10696
    Disregarding an Official Traffic-Control Device, ILCS 11-305-20
    My question involves a traffic ticket from the state of: Illinois

    This morning I was pulled over in a residential street after taking the side street to avoid a construction area a few hundred feet up at a junction. The side street was marked with a "No Thru Traffic" sign. I was pulled over and received a ticket for 11-305 20 Disregarding official traffic-control device. The police officer said there was zero tolerance during the construction. How can this be enforced??...should I fight this ticket which was a whopping $120. How does the police office know I was passing through?....what if I was planning to stop at a convenience store just down the road or anything like that. The police officer didn't follow me through the entire residential area to prove that I was passing through so I'm not sure how it can be enforced. He found out that I was from a different town and therefore just issued the citation.

    Any advice would be appreciated.
  • 04-16-2014, 08:26 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Disregarding an Official Traffic-Control Device, ILCS 11-305-20
    When you told the officer you were not driving through, but were only going to a convenience store that you identified within the immediate vicinity, how did the officer respond?
  • 04-16-2014, 10:57 AM
    spoons10696
    Re: Disregarding an Official Traffic-Control Device, ILCS 11-305-20
    I did not tell the officer that. My point is that I could have been going there so how can they enforce the violation. At the time I was obviously frustrated at being picked out when car after car after car are passing us by doing the exact same thing as me. The signs are obviously posted during construction to deter people short cutting through the residential area. There are also two parks in the area so again how can they ticket someone on the presumption that we are driving through, its not a dead end road or anything like that. It was a full fledged neighborhood area.
  • 04-16-2014, 11:13 AM
    free9man
    Re: Disregarding an Official Traffic-Control Device, ILCS 11-305-20
    You say the officer did not follow you, so where did he come from.

    I'm betting an officer on one side of the cut through radioed one waiting on the other side to keep his eyes out for you. When you appeared quite quickly on the other side, i.e. not having had time to stop anywhere, he made the stop.
  • 04-16-2014, 11:14 AM
    flyingron
    Re: Disregarding an Official Traffic-Control Device, ILCS 11-305-20
    The police are not obliged to pull everybody over. Obviously they can't practically write more than one ticket at a time so they typically catch one, release, catch another release. Usually they attract enough attention that people tend to start paying attention to the law. The rest of your statement doesn't make any sense. You can't have "through" traffic on a dead end. A "convenience store down the road" is through traffic. Unless you were going to one of the addresses on the street where the sign was posted you were going through.
  • 04-16-2014, 11:46 AM
    spoons10696
    Re: Disregarding an Official Traffic-Control Device, ILCS 11-305-20
    I understand your points but my point is that this is a neighborhood where there are churches, schools, parks, stores. Whether the sign is no thru traffic or local traffic only how can they enforce that with so many public amenities in the neighborhood?? The police car didn't follow me through the neighborhood all the way, just down one road a 1/4 mile off the main highway past one additional stop sign so couldn't prove I was driving through and as for local traffic only rules does that mean that no one who lives outside the neighborhood can use the public parks, churches, or stores?? Its as obvious as the nose on your face that as usual with law enforcement they are making a quick buck using the law in their favor. I wasn't speeding, I wasn't running signs but because I didn't live in that neighborhood or town I was ticketed because of a no thru/local traffic loophole put in place by the town itself taking advantage of the loosely based Illinois traffic control device law!
  • 04-16-2014, 11:50 AM
    Mr. Knowitall
    Re: Disregarding an Official Traffic-Control Device, ILCS 11-305-20
    You are free to contest the ticket and raise this claim for the first time at hearing. When the officer testifies that you made no such claim at the time you received the ticket, I would not expect the judge to give your newly concocted story appreciable weight, but I've been surprised before.
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