OOLITIC – Members of the Oolitic Town Council moved Monday to table voting on a previously discussed ordinance that would’ve increased some of the town’s speed limits.
The ordinance, which was previously approved and set for a final reading during Monday’s meeting, would have set a 25 mile per hour base limit for each street, except for alleys capped at 10 mph and school zone around Hoosier and 10th Streets at 20 mph.
The council originally looked to alter speed limits based on an Indiana statute that requires municipalities to have traffic engineering studies filed with the Indiana Department of Transportation to enforce speed limits below state standards.
Town Marshal James Harrington spoke to the rules regarding speed limits at last month’s meeting, saying that because the town has not filed a traffic study, the posted speed limit cannot be enforced and he is required to follow state law, which states an unmarked urban zone is to be set at 30 mph, with residential zones at 25 mph.
Additionally, Harrington said that in his experience judges are unlikely to force drivers to pay for any speeding tickets below 10 mph over the limit, so he and his crew are unlikely to issue citations because of their limited resources, which require them to currently write all tickets by hand, with them running low on ticket books.
As such, a driver would need to be driving at a minimum of 40 mph in a nonresidential area of the town before Harrington or any other officer could meaningfully give them a legal citation.
Additionally, Harrington said that in the event a driver is pulled over for speeding in an unenforceable zone, any evidence discovered after that point would likely be thrown out in court, because the officer knowingly pulled over the driver without legal basis to do-so.
Oolitic resident Chris Moore spoke to the council at the meeting, asking them to consider not increasing speed limits due to safety concerns expressed by himself and other residents.
In Dec. of 2020, Moore’s 10-year-old son Camden passed away after being struck by a car on Oolitic’s Vista Drive while riding his bike.
Moore said the estimated speed of the driver at the time of his son’s death was 26-32 mph, while the posted speed limit on Vista Drive is currently 20 mph.
Council member Jon Broglin said that if state regulations would allow, he would like to see the council lower speed limits on Lafayette Avenue and Vista Drive even further to 15 mph, but without a traffic engineering study it cannot be done.
Broglin said such a study could cost the town $30-40,000, which he said is not feasible at the time.
“Right now, funds are tight and we don’t have the extra $40,000 to turn around and engage the engineering firm and then for the next six months for them to compile the study and get it back to us,” Broglin said. “The money is just simply not there.”
Council member Brenda Corey said he has been conducting research since the group’s last meeting near the end of January and has found that in 2004 Commonwealth Engineering had conducted a traffic study on streets to be impacted by the ordinance, including Vista Drive and Lafayette Avenue, though INDOT has no record of a study being filed.
She said the speed limit on Lafayette Avenue has been 20 mph since 1955, with the town having no problems with issuing citations since.
“So, a lot of traffic tickets in that length of time,” she said. “If they’re not any good, we’ve had a lot of them.”
Following these talks, the matter was tabled by the council for further discussion at a future meeting.
