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State Sen. Kent Adams (R-Warsaw) has reintroduced legislation in the 2002 General Assembly allowing individual communities the option of adding special sensory cameras at dangerous intersections.
Tuesday the bill was presented during a Transportation and Interstate Cooperation Committee hearing with Warsaw Mayor Ernie Wiggins, Warsaw Police Chief Steve Foster, Ann Sweet and Morris Hester giving testimony.
For the past several years Sweet has campaigned for installation of red-light cameras. Her daughter, Shawnee Ulrey, was killed on U.S. 30 near Warsaw by a red-light runner in 1997.
She formed the local Focus on Safety committee and has testified on the Senate floor in Indianapolis. Last July her testimony was read at the Capitol during a Highways and Transit Sub-committee.
Foster has supported the legislation, making a fact-finding visits to Toledo, Ohio, where red-light cameras have been installed for some time.
When a vehicle commits a violation, the automated traffic law enforcement system camera produces a recorded still image of the motor vehicle proceeding through the intersection.
Filed by Adams and co-written by senators Tom Wyss (R-Fort Wayne), Charles Meeks (R-Leo) and Rose Antich (D-Merrillville), State Bill 8 would ultimately reduce the number of drivers who run red lights.
According to the Federal Highway Administration, some communities with red-light camera installations have witnessed a 43 percent reduction in the number of traffic accidents.
In 2000, there were 106,000 red-light running crashes that resulted in 89,000 injuries and 1,036 deaths. Red-light running is the leading cause of urban crashes today.
Overall, 55.8 percent of Americans admit running red lights. Most drivers fear they will get hit by a red-light runner when they enter an intersection.
One in three people claims they personally know someone who has been injured or killed in a red-light-running crash.
Nearly half (47.8 percent) admitted running a red light because of nothing more complicated than being in a hurry.
Red-light runners do not conform to a set demographic - the practice reaches across drivers of all age, economic groups and gender. The perpetrators are everyday people: professionals, blue-collar workers, unemployed, homemakers, parents and young adults.
After the camera records a still photograph of the car running the red light, communities would mail citations to the owners of the violating vehicles, complete with the photos. Enforcement personnel would treat the offense as a non-moving violation that would have no effect on driver's license points or insurance, providing there are no aggravating circumstances.
The legislation also stipulates that an ordinance that legalizes automated traffic law enforcement systems may not impose a civil penalty exceeding $100 and that local communities must post signs indicating the presence of the device near intersections.
Adams has amended the legislation to specify that only still photos, not video, may be used for the cameras. The amendments also would ensure that local police would review and validate all violations and that vendors must have an up-front contractual agreement with communities before installing the lights.
The committee passed the legislation, in a 7 to 2 vote.
Although similar legislation passed the Senate last session, House Roads and Transportation Committee Chairman Gary Cook (D-Plymouth) refused to hear the bill in the House.
Cook said he did not believe a local community needed a state law to install red-light cameras, making legislation unnecessary.
The Indiana Attorney General's office concluded Indiana law mandates a state statute must be in place before local communities install such devices.
Presently, 30 cities use approximately 353 cameras at intersections nationwide that produce still photographs of redlight runners. The U.S. Department of Transportation reports 19 states use or have plans to install the devices.
