Bloomington, Indiana – Despite the fact that the number of vehicles on the roads decreased as a result of the pandemic in last year and a half, the number of fatal accidents and accidents with no fatalities are both seeing in increase across Indiana.
Taking into consideration the completely unpopular statistics, two state representatives are calling on Governor Eric Holcomb to set aside funding to address what they call a safety crisis on the roads.
Both of the state lawmakers who called Indiana Governor are Blake Johnson and Mitch Gore who are both Democrats and are representing Indianapolis. According to them, extra funding is more than needed right since the funds appointed to the agencies that enforce traffic laws have been stretched in the last couple of years.
“Here in our community for example, the men and women of IMPD and other local agencies are just going from call to call and run to run answering calls for service and when you have limited resources like our police agencies do, you have to allocate people to where they’re needed the most and often that’s not traffic enforcement,” Gore said.
“That’s why you can’t simply tell IMPD or ISP or any local or state county agency [to] do more traffic enforcement. There simply isn’t enough money, there simply aren’t enough officers.”
The lawmakers’ plan would allow state police and local agencies to apply for dollars without a match requirement to pay for overtime for officers working traffic enforcement details.
Additionally, the legislation they plan to introduce should allow the cities to install cameras in the school zones that should improve the driver’s behavior and improve the overall safety in those areas.
According to the law currently enforced law, cities are not allowed by the state to install such cameras anywhere, including the school zones.
“I drive home on Washington Street each day, and during that one drive from downtown to the east side I go through three school zones. If we could adequately enforce those school zones and cite individuals for speed infractions, I believe we could dramatically reduce the speeds we see on that corridor in particular, which is one of the most dangerous in the city,” Johnson said.
The state lawmakers finished their letter addressed to Gov. Holcomb citing a few additional reasons why such a law should be considering adding the effects on the healthcare system as a result of the crashes, insurance premiums and Hoosier families.
