Illinois has different driving rules for anyone under the age of 21. Basically from 16 to 21, there is a graduating scale of permissions you have as a driver.
You are not considered a full-fledged driver in the State of Illinois until after your 21st birthday. From 16 on, you have certain restrictions on who can be in your car, how late you can drive your car, and how many people under the age of 18 can be in the car.
Then as you reach 18, those kind of restrictions fall away. From 18 to 21, you can still only have two moving violation convictions within a 24-month period. If you turn 18 and immediately get a speeding ticket, you just pay it and get a conviction instead of receiving a supervision, if you were to get another conviction on your record within the next 24 months or two years, you can lose your license.
More often than not, you will lose your license because of the two convictions. I would say anyone under the age of 21, not just under the age of 18, needs to be aware that you are one a much more stricter set of rules than anyone 21 or older.
For people 21 and older, taking one conviction on their record in a 12-month period isn’t going to do any damage outside of what could happen to their insurance.
For anyone under the age of 21, receiving a conviction, no matter what it is, will immediately put their license in jeopardy because they only get one more swing of the bat.
As far as reckless driving goes, it’s really handled the same across the board. If anything, people under the age of 18 might receive more of a benefit of the doubt. They might receive, this is a completely case by case hypothetical, they could receive a better plea agreement with the state, like possible getting it amended to something else or working in more community service hours.
A lot of times the court system is willing to give younger drivers a break if it’s their first offense, if they’re not repeat offenders. If the facts of the reckless driving are not egregious, they could find themselves getting amended charges, getting some sort of community service, deferred judgement or arrangement.
If it’s an 18-year-old, or even a 17-year-old, and they’ve had a couple of tickets in the past, they can expect to face the reckless driving charge the same as a 35-year-old would. It’s a Class A misdemeanor and if they’re found guilty and receive a conviction, it will be points on their license.
For anyone under the age of 21, those points will immediately put you in jeopardy of losing your license until you are over the age of 21.