Sweet Testifies In Indianapolis For Traffic Laws Violations Bill
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Jennifer Peryam-jperyam@timesuniononline.com
Ann Sweet, Warsaw, testified Thursday at the statehouse in Indianapolis for legislation that would give municipalities the option to install traffic infraction detection systems at intersections in Indiana to deter red light running.
Sweet, who serves as a spokeswoman for the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running, testified to the Indiana House of Representatives' Roads and Transportation Committee.She spoke in support of HB 1586: Automated Traffic Laws Violations. The bill is co-sponsored by State Representatives Bill Friend (R-Macy) and Shelly VanDenburgh (District 19).
On Oct. 27, 1997, Sweet's daughter, Shawnne Ulrey, was killed by a red light runner as she drove across U.S. 30.
Since her daughter's death, Sweet has worked with local, state and national leaders to decrease the loss of property and life on the nation's highways.
HB 1586 was first introduced to the committee Thursday, and the committee approved the bill on first reading 9-1. There will need to be a second and third reading in the house, and then it will go to the senate to vote on. If the bill goes to the senate committee to vote on, Sweet will testify again at that time.
The bill pertains to automated traffic law violations. If approved by the senate, it would allow a municipality to install a traffic infraction detection system - a device that produces photographs of a vehicle that proceeds through a red light - at local, county and state highway intersections within the municipal boundaries.
The bill provides that the civil penalty for a violation detected by a traffic infraction detection system is $75.
If the senate approves the bill, it would go into effect July 1.
Since 2001, Sweet has been lobbying for the passage of the photo enforcement legislation that would allow municipalities to install cameras in order to keep drivers accountable for their actions. Sweet said she feels there is a need for the cameras in Kosciusko County.
In her statements, she quoted former Warsaw State Police Chief Steve Foster, who testified in 2003 at a senate hearing, that at seven intersections on the northern edge of Warsaw, 158 red light running violations have been documented in three hours, 2-1/2 times the national average.
Sweet said the plan for the bill would be to engineer intersections so that drivers can pass through them safely, educate the driving public to the extreme danger of all intersections, and to provide the consistent consequences that have been proven to significantly curtail deadly behavior.
"Serving as an officer's eyes when the officer can't be present, cameras can catch not 6 percent, but 100 percent of red light offenders at intersections where they are installed," Sweet said.
Sweet said 350 cities in the United States have cameras and have documented between 27 percent to 87 percent reduction in red light running at intersections where they are installed, according to the National Campaign to Stop Red Light Running.
