Truck drivers could pay a much steeper fine for not using designated truck routes in Crawfordsville.
The cost for a citation would jump to $2,500 per violation from $100 under a proposal presented Monday to the City Council’s Traffic, Parking and Safety Committee. The measure was sent on to the full council with a favorable recommendation.
The city hopes it will send the message to drivers as residents in west side neighborhoods deal with damaged yards and sidewalks from trucks attempting to turn around on side streets.
“We’ve started to pick up enforcement, but I’ll tell you that the penalty is not a real deterrent for the trucking companies,” Mayor Todd Barton told the committee.
The proposed increase is similar to the truck route fines charged in other Indiana communities. Officials have considered putting the money into a repair fund for properties damaged by trucks, but that isn’t part of the current proposal.
Councilman Mike Reidy, who lives on the west side, suggested posting the fine on “no truck” signs to warn drivers, like the one that got stuck in a neighbor’s yard.
“The biggest wrecker I’ve ever seen in Crawfordsville came and lifted the cab off the rock and set it down,” Reidy said, “and I asked the lady who lives there, ‘How much was that?’ and she said ‘700 bucks.’ That’s what [the towing company] told the truck driver.”
The designated routes may not be included in the navigational systems used by truckers.
“I was told that part of the problem is that the GPS takes them that way, unless they have the sophisticated trucker GPS which takes them down truck routes,” councilman Andy Biddle said. “But a lot of them don’t have those because they’re so expensive.”
It’s also difficult to provide maps of the routes because drivers from multiple companies deliver to the same companies, Barton said.
Designated routes on the west end include Jennison Street from the western city limits to Washington Street and Bluff Street from Covington to Garden streets.
