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Wednesday, September 19, 2007

Ind. Law - More on: Not golfcarts, but ATVs

Remember this ILB entry from Sept. 7th that began:

"It's official: ATV's allowed on county roads" is the heading to this story by Lisa Meyer Trigg in the Greencastle Banner Graphic. * * * Starting Oct. 1, individuals can ride all-terrain vehicles legally on Putnam County roads.
Another day, another county, another story -- today Dick Kaukas reports in the Louisville Courier Journal, in a story headed "Plan to let ATVs use roads dies before Floyd commission." Some quotes:
An ordinance that would have allowed farmers to use all-terrain vehicles on roads in Floyd County died last night after the Floyd County Sheriff's Department and police chief opposed it. * * *

Floyd County Sheriff Darrell Mills and police Chief Ted Heavrin opposed the plan.

In a letter dated Sept. 5 to Steve Bush, the council president and a New Albany police detective, Mills and Heavrin said that "we both feel that this ordinance would not benefit the county" and that some residents would complain that officers and the commissioners were "helping the farmer or benefiting some agricultural activity."

Because county police already get complaints about people riding ATVs on roads, the letter continued, "it would be to our benefit" if the ordinance was not approved.

During last night's meeting, Heavrin repeated another point in the letter, saying that officers may decide "at their discretion" to allow farmers to proceed along a road if they are moving from field to field.

Most of the time, Heavrin told the commissioners, farmers ride on grassy areas on the side of the road.

Mann argued that the ordinance would protect farmers from liability if they were involved in an accident that they did not cause because the party at fault could argue that the farmer should not have been on the road in the first place.

Bush said state law forbids ATVs on roads.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on September 19, 2007 10:24 AM
Posted to Indiana Law