When students are not worrying about getting a parking space, they are worrying about whether they are going to hit someone else’s car or have their car be hit.
Sophomore Darlene Narca said, “The spaces are so tight that there’s not a lot of room for error when you park.” Ask any commuter or resident who has a car on campus and they are likely to agree. But how many of these accidents are reported?
Unfortunately, after speaking to John Touhy, the Police Chief and Director of Public Safety, it was discovered that in previous years all crash reports had to be handled by the Chicago Police 22nd District. Recently Public Safety has received authorization by the State of Illinois to take crash reports for accidents that occur on campus. This will make reporting easier for smaller accidents that no longer need to be reported to the Chicago Police.
This new information was mentioned to Senior Lauren Madon whose vehicle has been involved in a couple of smaller accidents here on campus but never felt the need to file.
She explained that, “Filing a report would have involved a lot of work for a couple of nicks and scratches.” Now that students have the ability to go straight to Public Safety this may allow for accidents to be reported.
Even with this authorization though Public Safety is only able to handle accidents that involve crashes and property damage.
Any incident that may involve injury or ticket related issues, such as driving uninsured-driving with a suspended license-etc., does require that the Chicago Police be contacted to come to campus as well as handle any follow ups for the accident.
An official number for the amount of crash reports handled by public safety will not be known till the end of this year. But when asked how many reports he believes they handle of average Touhy stated, “Just off the top of my head we average about two property type crash or accident reports a week, and only a slight number of those are referred to the Chicago Police.”
According to Touhy there is no pattern as to which area or areas have accidents most reported to Public Safety. Property vehicle accidents are happening all over campus.
If you are ever involved in any type of vehicular accident on either Saint Xavier’s Chicago or Orland campuses Public safety recommends you call not only them but also the Chicago or Orland Park Police. Public Safety can be reached through the following numbers: 773-298-3541, 773-298-4400, or 773-298 -3911.
Catlyn Hicks
Senior News Editor
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