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INDIANAPOLIS - Reducing the number of drivers who run red lights is the purpose of Senate Bill 4, sponsored by State Senator Kent Adams (R-Warsaw), advanced from the Senate Transportation and Interstate Cooperation Committee last week. It now moves to the floor of the Senate for a vote this week.
SB 4 was filed Oct. 24 by Adams and co-authored by senators Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne) and Charles Meeks (R-Leo).
Ann Sweet, Warsaw, founded Focus on Safety, a traffic safety advocacy group, after her daughter's death in 1997. Shawnee Ulrey, 21, was killed when a semi tractor-trailer hit her vehicle after ignoring a red light.
The accident was one of many on U.S. 30 in Kosciusko County, considered the second most deadly highway in Indiana, according to sheriff's reports.
Focus on Safety was developed to educate people about red light running and help communities establish programs curtailing the problem of red light running, a habit Sweet calls "a socially accepted disease."
Sweet has been instrumental in developing the legislation along with Adams. She testified before the Senate Transportation and Interstate Cooperation Committee Jan. 23 and is expected to testify before the full Senate this week.
The proposed bill would allow cities, towns and counties to adopt ordinances to place special sensory cameras at dangerous intersections. When a vehicle commits a violation, the camera takes a picture of the vehicle proceeding through the intersection when the traffic light is red.
Citations are mailed to the owners of the violating vehicles, complete with photographs. The offense is treated as a non-moving violation and doesn't affect driver license points or insurance, providing there are not aggravating circumstances, such as causing an accident, which is determined by the police officer or insurance carrier.
SB 4 advanced from the Senate Transportation and Interstate cooperation Committee last week. The committee included an amendment that Adams said puts more restrictions on enforcement by local authorities. In the opinion of some legislators, this will reduce the number of communities that would enact this new provision in the law.
The Indiana Trucking Association supports the concept of SB 4, stating they do not want any unsafe drivers on the road. The trucking association wanted language in the bill that would give them leverage on follow-up to the driver-employee responsibility. The original bill would allow this, but also left parameters to local authorities.
Adams said he does not favor the restriction in the amendment since the responsibility should rest with the trucking companies, not any requirements or limits for local authorities.
"The amendment added in committee is simply more government and we do not want to see this," Adams said.
"The essence of SB 4 is an attempt to change driver behavior and make our streets and highways safer by granting authority to local communities to set specific application and penalty guidelines. This bill is all about local control," the senator said. "I have faith in letting each community decide individually what is best for their area. Nationwide, a 43 percent reduction in accidents is shown at intersections where cameras are installed. This legislation will go a long way toward reducing the many accidents and fatalities we have at busy intersections, and that is positive."
