SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WAND)- The Illinois Supreme Court has sided with prosecutors in the case of a man charged with illegally driving a gas-powered bicycle while his license was revoked.
In 2016, officer Judson Wienke reported seeing John Plank riding a motorized bicycle down a Douglas County road at 26 miles per hour. In court, Wienke described the bicycle as powered by “a weed-eater motor” and said it was not registered in Illinois.
State law allows people without licenses to drive low-speed gas bicycles, defined as a “2 or 3-wheeled device with fully operable pedals and a gasoline motor of less than one horsepower, whose maximum speed on a paved level surface, when powered solely by a motor while ridden by an operator who weights 170 pounds, is less than 20 miles per hour.”
Plank argued that definition was unconstitutionally vague, especially in cases in which the driver does not weigh 170 pounds. The local court agreed and dismissed the charge. The judge in the case said a police officer “would have to have a scale in their squad car in order to weight the individual as soon as they pulled them over.”
In its decision, the Illinois Supreme Court disagreed and suggested the 170 pound reference refers to the strength of the motor, not the weight of the driver. The court ultimately wrote that the law’s definition of “low-speed gas bicycle” meets legal requirements.
The Supreme Court reversed the local court’s dismissal of the charge and sent the case back for further proceedings.
