Chicago Accident and Injury Lawyer Blog

Open-road tolling is not just convenient and conducive to getting you to your destination quicker, it also could help save lives.

Illinois toll roads have been the scene of fatal pile-ups at toll booths in the past. On October 1, 2003, around 3 p.m., a multi-vehicle accident occurred on the approach to an I-90 toll plaza near the Hampshire-Marengo toll plaza. A 1995 Freightliner tractor trailer was traveling eastbound approaching the toll plaza when it struck the back of a 25-passenger specialty bus. The specialty bus struck the rear of a pickup truck, which was pushed into the rear of another tractor trailer causing it to overturn. The pickup truck was struck by another tractor trailer approaching the toll booth. Sadly, eight of the passengers on the bus were fatally injured and twelve other bus passengers suffered injuries.

View an NTSB animation of the toll booth accident here.

After completing an investigation of this tragic accident (NTSB Number HAR-06/03), the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) determined that the probable cause of the accident was the failure of the Freightliner truck driver to slow down for traffic and operating his vehicle too fast for traffic conditions. The NTSB found that contributing to the accident was the traffic backup in a 45-mph zone, created by vehicles stopping for the Hampshire-Marengo toll plaza.

The NTSB identified “toll plaza design and the lack of national standards for toll plaza design” as a safety issue that needed to be addressed.

It was recently reported that Chicago Skyway Concession Co. - the Spanish-Australian consortium that is leasing the Chicago Skyway - is asking the Illinois General Assembly to authorize camera enforcement and administrative adjudication of Skyway toll violators. This may be the first step toward replacing the current system with open-road tolling and potentially reducing accidents related to traffic backing up at toll booths.