(INDIANAPOLIS) — Indiana may turn to cameras to try to make highway work zones safer.
Indiana averages 20 deaths a year in work zone crashes. Pete Rimsans with the State Building Trades Council says about a quarter of those are workers. He says Indiana could reduce those numbers by copying five states which use cameras to catch and issue tickets to work zone speeders. A House committee has unanimously endorsed a two-year pilot program to deploy up to four cameras around the state.
Rimsans says “it’s like the Indy 500” in highway work zones. Even when drivers are following the rules, there can be less than a foot between workers and the traffic lane, and Murray Miller with Indiana Laborers Local 645 says too many drivers don’t obey signs telling them to slow down. He says workers have near-daily stories about close calls.
Rimsans says the state wouldn’t even have to install cameras everywhere to make a difference — he predicts the possibility would be enough to make people slow down.
Legislators have long resisted using cameras for traffic enforcement on privacy grounds, but they did approve cameras on school bus stop arms two years ago. A Senate committee approved a work zone pilot program last year, but the bill was yanked from the Senate floor before a final vote.
