Conditions were treacherous along a stretch of Interstate Highway 80 Wednesday near Joliet, where a crash involving at least five vehicles near Larkin Avenue injured a tower, whose name was not released.

The accident apparently started with a vehicle skidding out of control while trying to avoid hitting the tow truck driver, who was outside his truck working on a disabled vehicle. His injuries were not considered serious, police said.

02/09/2007

Waukegan, Illinois – A federal judge last week reversed an order that barred Waukegan from enforcing its towing ordinance while awaiting appeal on its constitutionality, according to a published report.

The ordinance requires police to impound the car of any driver who doesn’t have a valid license or insurance and to charge a $500 impound fee.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lefkow ruled in November that the ordinance was unconstitutional and ordered the city to stop enforcing it. But in an order filed last Tuesday, Lefkow admitted missteps in her initial ruling that would make it likely the city’s position would prevail on appeal.

She also wrote that barring the city from enforcing the law in the meantime would impinge on Waukegan’s right to enforce its own laws and that removing the injunction would likely keep city roads safer by preventing accidents.

In the case before Lefkow, Larissa Harrington lent her car in 2003 to her son, who was stopped for speeding while driving with a license that had expired three months earlier.

The son called Harrington, who asked police if she could drive the car home. Though she had a valid license and insurance and owned the car, the officer refused to let her take it, citing the mandatory towing law. Harrington challenged the law as a violation of the 4th and 14th Amendments to the Constitution and sued the city the next year.

After the incident, Waukegan amended the ordinance to make towing mandatory for drivers whose licenses had been expired for more than six months, Naddenriep said. The city later refunded $800 to Harrington.

In her order, Lefkow wrote that she didn’t consider dismissing Harrington’s case as moot, though the city already had paid Harrington actual damages and her complaint was a claim for attorney’s fees.

The judge also wrote that she was convinced by the city’s arguments that the ordinance protected the public.

City attorneys appealed Lefkow’s November ruling, and the case is pending before the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. As for the ordinance, officials said it will go back into effect immediately.