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It won't be heard by the state Committee on Roads and Transportation, which effectively kills the automated traffic systems "Red Light Camera Bill" at the state level.
Filed in January, the bill was authored by senators Kent Adams (R-Warsaw) and Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne).
After passage through the Senate Committee on Transportation and Interstate Cooperation, where it was heavily amended, the bill went to the House Rules and Legislative Procedures, where it sat for a month.
Monday, House Speaker John Gregg reassigned the bill to the Committee on Roads and Transportation, where Democratic chairman Rep. Gary Cook (Plymouth) refused to hear it.
"It surprised me that Cook, he's a police officer, would take this position. He would understand the importance of what this is about more than anyone," Adams said in a telephone interview.
The legislation's intent is to identify vehicles that run red lights by taking a photograph of the license plate when a sensory camera is activated.
A citation would be sent to the owner of the car with a fine no higher than $100.
"We have no ulterior motive to get into anyone's personal life," Adams, a former state trooper, said in response to the "Big Brother" allegations thrown at the law. "It is simply to take a picture of the license plate.
"The Indiana Department of Transportation told us and their legal staff told us we couldn't install the cameras on a state or federal highway without state legislation."
Adams won't let the issue drive by, however, and plans to revive it next year. Not a big believer in coupling legislation (tacking one bill on the tail end of another), he is preparing for the first session in 2002.
"We're out of time," he said. "Next year the bill will incorporate railroad crossing cameras, too."
The state senator said the positive thing is that people have been educated about red light cameras and already will have the background information next year.
Ann Sweet, a local backer of the legislation, doesn't see the committee's refusal to hear SB4 as a bad thing.
Although she testified before a house committee in February, the Focus on Safety organizer said, "We did get a lot of publicity and now understand how the process works.
"At first glance," she said, "it looks like a terrible thing if you're for the cameras, but it's not."
Sweet said local traffic commissions may be able to allow what the state doesn't disallow.
