(A) Truck defined. For the purpose of this section, "truck" means a vehicle with an overall length of 40 feet or more and includes semitrailer trucks, the length of the tractor individually, the length of the
trailer individually, and/or a combination of the length of the tractor and the trailer. The term "truck" includes every self-propelled commercial vehicle 40 feet or more in length used for the transport of goods or property being operated on any highway, as defined by I.C. 9-13-2-73, in Dearborn County, Indiana.
(B) The Dearborn County Board of Commissioners, acting through the authority granted to them by I.C. 8-17-1-40, 9-21-1-2(a), and/or 9-21-1-3(a)(8), may, by motion, passed at a public meeting, direct the Dearborn County Highway Department to post signs prohibiting trucks, as defined in § 70.09(A), from utilizing the designated county maintained highway as a thruway under § 70.09(C) or § 70.09(D).
(C) The Dearborn County Highway Department may request that the prohibition authorized in § 70.09(B) be for a specific period of time. Once the period of time has elapsed, the prohibition will expire automatically and the Dearborn County Highway Department shall remove any signage noting the prohibition as soon as reasonably possible. Should the Dearborn County Highway Department believe that the prohibition should be extended, a representative from the Dearborn County Highway Department will request this extension at a public meeting of the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners. Such extension may be authorized by the passage of a motion by the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners to that effect.
(D) If the Dearborn County Highway Department believes that the prohibition should be a permanent prohibition, rather than temporary as outlined in § 70.09(C), such prohibition must be passed by ordinance of the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners. Any removal of a permanent prohibition may only be done by passage of an ordinance of the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners.
(E) Pursuant to I.C. 9-21-1-3(b), upon the passage of such a motion or Ordinance, the prohibition " ... is effective when signs giving notice of the local traffic regulations are posted upon or at the entrances to the highway or part of the highway that is affected."
(F) Exceptions.
(1) Pursuant to I.C. 9-21-1-7, any prohibition adopted by the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners does not apply to a person, team, motor vehicle, and other equipment actually engaged in work on the surface of a highway;
(2) Any prohibition adopted by the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners does not apply to an "authorized emergency vehicle" as defined by I.C. 9-13-2-6;
(3) Any prohibition adopted by the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners does not prohibit the necessary local operation of trucks, as defined by § 70.09(A), from operation on any county maintained highways for the purpose of picking up and/or delivering materials on the county maintained highway;
(4) Any prohibition adopted by the Dearborn County Board of Commissioners does not apply to vehicles operating upon tracks, common carriers of public passengers, school buses being utilized by an Indiana school corporation or private school, service vehicles operated by a public utility, or vehicles operated by the State of Indiana, Dearborn County, or contractors of the State of Indiana or Dearborn County.
(H) In addition to the temporary or permanent prohibitions authorized by this section, the Dearborn County Highway Department is authorized to post warning signs on any county maintained roads that it deems appropriate in an effort to warn truck traffic not to use certain roads because of sharp curves, steep climbs, narrow roadways, narrow bridges, school bus traffic, and/or other potentially hazardous conditions. These signs are not meant to prohibit the truck traffic, but rather to warn the truck drivers that certain roads may not be safe for truck traffic, even if truck traffic has not been officially prohibited on the county maintained roads in question.
(BC Ord. 2019-005, passed 4-23-19)