Curran Rd. Nut - Lic. 728 5270

Gus Philpott
April 20, 2007

Yesterday’s road crazy of the day award goes to the male driver of a dirty Dodge Magnum with Illinois license plate 728 5270. This driver has been reported to the McHenry Police Department.

At about 6:30PM on April 19 I was poking along southbound on Curran Road in McHenry at the posted speed limit of 40MPH. From Dartmoor to Bull Valley Road, one would think that the speed limit is rural unposted 55MPH, but the City of McHenry has posted one lonely 40MPH sign just south of Dartmoor because the City of McHenry now extends to Bull Valley Road.

I was already aware of one impatient driver, who had been tailgating me from Route 120. But the speed limit is the speed Limit, no matter the thinking behind a City’s planner.

South of Dartmoor and almost to Bull Valley Road suddenly I spotted a driver passing the car behind me. He passed me, too, and he appeared to be traveling about 70MPH in the 40MPH zone. I got his license plate number as he passed me, but I couldn’t get a look at the driver.

Due to heavy cross-traffic on Bull Valley Road, I caught up with the driver at the stop sign, where he turned left. Heavy traffic and a red light delayed him at W. Crystal Lake Road, where I stopped again behind him. He got pretty far ahead of me southbound on W. Crystal Lake Road but caught a red light at Hillside, and I stopped again right behind him. Then he caught a red light at IL 176, and I again stopped behind him. All without any speeding on my part as the speed zones dropped from 50 to 45 to 40 to 30MPH!

While we were stopped at the red light, I photographed the rear of his car and the license plate. He must have been looking in his rearview mirror, because the driver stepped out of his car and gestured toward me, and I photographed him several times. I was en route to a meeting in Crystal Lake and did not go out of my way to follow him.

Unfortunately, there is no prosecutable offense, because I cannot attest accurately to his speed. I have been asking the McHenry Police Department for more than a year to enforce the unreasonably low speed limit on Curran Road and to persuade the City and the McHenry Streets Department to post additional 40MPH signs on Curran Road in both directions. Better yet, the speed limit should be raised!

The 40MPH speed limit is unreasonably low. But, as long as it’s there, it needs to be enforced. McHenry occasionally, and wisely, flags new speed limit signs with orange flags to attract a driver’s attention. They should do this here.