Illegally parking in disabled spot could mean fine
</element><element id="paragraph-1" type="body"><![CDATA[Illinois drivers who use fake or stolen permits to park in spots reserved for the disabled would face tougher penalties under recommendations made Thursday to the state Legislature.
An advisory committee on traffic safety headed by Secretary of State Jesse White recommended a $2,500 fine and one-year license suspension for offenders, including drivers who use rear-view mirror placards or disability license plates of disabled people who have died.
White acknowledged enforcing the measure may be a challenge, but he said the goal was to make sure the disabled have access to parking. The 10-member committee voted unanimously to call for the General Assembly to vote this session on legislation to allow the penalties.
"When we find hotspots on the street where we see a lot of disability placards affixed to the rear-view mirrors of automobiles, then I will take it upon myself to call in the strike force to get after these vehicles," White said.
White named former U.S. Transportation Secretary Sam Skinner to help review the state's disabled parking program and suggest ways to find and deter offenders.
"That has gotten to - I won't say epidemic proportions - but it's gotten to be a very serious problem in Illinois," Skinner said.
Technology may offer solutions for enforcement, Skinner said. One possibility would be to use devices similar to those used on tollways to electronically read permits and license plates and be sure they match up.
Several disabled drivers spoke to the committee to urge action.
One of them, Marca Bristo, has pushed for a crackdown since shortly after breaking her neck in a diving accident in 1977. She needs a wheelchair and drives a van equipped with a ramp. But Bristo said the fraudulent use of permits has made it so hard to find places to park that she sometimes forgoes setting out by car.
"You really think twice about going places. It really deprives you of the freedoms that others have," she said in an interview before speaking to the committee.