State tracking ‘dooring’ of bicyclistsIf you’re riding your bike and you ...

State tracking 'dooring' of bicyclists

If you're riding your bike and you run into an open car door, the State of Illinois wants to hear about it. Gov. Quinn on Monday announced that Illinois is now tracking such accidents — known as "dooring" crashes. Quinn's office says the goal is to determine where road improvements and public outreach efforts may be needed to protect bicyclists. The governor says the goal is to make roads safer for everyone. Information on dooring will be collected and analyzed by the Illinois Department of Transportation. IDOT's Division of Traffic Safety is giving law enforcement agencies across the state instructions on how to begin recording dooring crashes. Data from police departments that already track dooring collisions, including Chicago, will be included in Illinois' traffic statistics, retroactive to May 2010.

'He's going to spend a lifetime in prison in his own heart'

The mother of a construction worker killed in a crash in 2010 said she knows the man who hit her son will suffer regardless of the length of his prison sentence. "He's going to spend a lifetime in prison in his own heart," said Celia Jane Jenkins, whose son, Christopher Jenkins, 45, was killed last year while patching potholes on the Borman Expressway. Jenkins was one of several witnesses who testified at Monday's sentencing hearing for Robert Anthony Shannon, 37, of Hammond, who apologized to Jenkins' family at the cemetery on the one-year anniversary of the crash. Lake Superior Court Judge Clarence Murray imposed a six-year prison term, followed by one year on probation, for Shannon, who pleaded guilty March 31 to reckless operation of a vehicle in a highway work zone causing death.