Are you a citizen of Illinois? Do you love having the license plate cover as an accessory to decorate or protect your license plate? Many drivers will now have to give up the favorite license plate cover that so many people in Illinois have…
According to the new law passed by the Senate, starting Tuesday, drivers in Illinois will no longer be able to add a favorite accessory to their car and license plates. The popular license plate covers that kept license plates free from bug splats and dust, kept thieves from trying to steal license plate stickers, and also kept license plates with fashionable style, are now banned in the state of Illinois.
Retailers will begin not selling these popular accessories as it is against the law to have one on a driver’s car. For those who are caught with license plates covers, they will be ticketed with a seventy-five dollar fine, and it will be considered a non-moving violation. Illinois’s Governor, Rod Blagojevich, signed the law into effect to assist law enforcement agencies.
Police Departments are stating that there are a couple of reasons why license plate covers are a problem. One problem is that covers can reduce the visibility of a license plate, and it also is worse during the nighttime hours of driving. Some license plate covers have tinted covers that make it hard to read the numbers on the license plates. Other covers tend to turn yellow as they age too. Police also find that the tinted covers make it difficult to read which state drivers are from when they are looking at them as well. Police state that the blue and green covers distort Illinois plates.
Just last year, colored license plates were banner in Illinois, and now every other kind of license plate has been banned as well. While the law has just recently went into effect, most police officers will be issuing warnings to offenders of this new law for the next week or so. Police officers also were worried about plastic license plate covers also, which some drivers would use so police would be unable to scan their license plates.
With the new law into effect, retailers will now have to discontinue the sell of license plates. Under the new law, which was passed through the Senate, it stated, “A person may not sell or offer for sale a registration plate cover. As stated in the online newspaper, PJstar, in Peoria Heights, IL, an O’Reilly Auto Parts store, already had to turn away one questioning customer who asked about license plate covers. He stated that he could no longer sell them because they had become illegal.
For those who still have license plate covers, motorists should be sure that they remove them, so that they won’t be fined with a $75 fine. While some may find this law unfair or ridiculous, it is the state’s way of trying to make the road ways a safer place, as there is a lot of information that can be found out through license plates on vehicles such as if they have been stolen, or if a driver’s license has been suspended or revoked.
For drivers in Illinois, who have any other questions concerning their license plates, or other DMV questions, there is an online website, for Illinois where they can go for information: Illinois License Plates and Placards Information.
