In the wake of two fatal crashes involving Chicago cabdrivers, a Tribune investigation has found the courts routinely dismiss the vast majority of tickets issued to heavily cited cabdrivers.
In a story to be published Friday, reporters found that the rate of dismissals for these taxi drivers was about twice as high as for the average driver. The dismissals allowed these cabdrivers to have nearly spotless driving records and more easily renew their city chauffeur’s license.
Some went on to hit, injure or kill pedestrians, according to police and court records.
The findings frustrate traffic safety advocates, who fear the system has allowed more dangerous drivers to remain on the roads, and pedestrians who have been hit by some of these cabdrivers.
“They need to do a better job of following up with these cabdrivers,” said Veronica Andrews, who was allegedly hit by a cabdriver while crossing Michigan Avenue in June. “They are providing a public service, but it feels like no one is looking at them.”
Before Andrews’ accident, cabdriver Maxwell Gabriel had been stopped 22 times by police since 2008, resulting in 34 tickets, according to court records. But in 16 of the 22 stops, all tickets were dismissed.
That allowed him to fall below the three-tickets-a-year threshold established by the city to flag dangerous cabdrivers.
Gabriel told the Tribune he’s a good driver and didn’t hit Andrews. That case is still pending.
Other heavily ticketed drivers have enjoyed high rates of dismissals, as well.
The Tribune analyzed traffic court files for 28 drivers who it found had been stopped the most and received a high number of citizen complaints against them.
The newspaper found that the 28 averaged about three stops a year in which they were cited by police, but every ticket from two-thirds of those stops was dismissed.
Prosecutors say it’s difficult to say for sure why tickets are being dismissed. It’s typically because an officer doesn’t show up to court to testify, but it can be for other reasons, such as crash victims not testifying or weak evidence that makes a conviction unlikely.
The city has vowed to reform the system in the wake of two recent pedestrian deaths blamed on taxi drivers.
One crash in August led to the death of an 86-year-old woman who had been crossing the street, officials said. The cabdriver, Mohammed Ahmed, had been stopped nine previous times by police since 2006, with tickets thrown out in every stop except for one.
He told reporters he plans to plead not guilty to the latest case.
