(A) Truck defined. For the purpose of this section, TRUCK means a vehicle with a weight of ten tons or more. The term TRUCK includes every self-propelled commercial vehicle weighing ten tons or more used for the transport of goods or property being operated on any highway, as defined by I.C. 9-13-2-73, in the county.
(B) The Perry 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 Perry County Highway Department to post signs prohibiting trucks, as defined herein, from utilizing the designated county-maintained highway as a thruway under divisions (C) or (D) below.
(C) The Perry County Highway Department may request that the prohibition authorized in division (B) be for a specific period of time. Once the period of time has elapsed, the prohibition will expire automatically and the Perry County Highway Department shall remove any signage noting the prohibition as soon as reasonably possible. Should the Perry County Highway Department believe that the prohibition should be extended, a representative from the Perry County Highway Department will request this extension at a Public Meeting of the Perry County Board of Commissioners. Such extension may be authorized by the passage of a motion of the Perry County Board of Commissioners to that effect.
(D) If the Perry County Highway Department believes that the prohibition should be a permanent prohibition, rather than temporary, as outlined in division (C), such prohibition must be passed by ordinance of the Perry County Board of Commissioners. Any removal of a permanent prohibition may only be done by passage of an ordinance of the Perry 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 a part of the highway that is affected."
(F) Exceptions.
(1) Pursuant to I.C. 9-21-1-7, any prohibition adopted by the Perry 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 Perry 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 Perry County Board of Commissioners does not prohibit the necessary local operation of trucks, as defined by division (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 Perry 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, Perry County, or contracts of the State of Indiana or Perry County.
(G) Any person found to be in violation of this section shall be subject to the penalties outlined in division (I) below. Pursuant to I.C. 9-21-1-2(b), any fines collected pursuant to division (I) shall be deposited into the Perry County General Fund.
(H) In addition to the temporary or permanent prohibitions authorized by this section, the Perry 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 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.
(I) Penalty. Any person found to be in violation of this section shall be guilty of, and fined, as follows:
(1) First offense - Class C infraction: a fine of up to $500;
(2) Second offense - Class B infraction: a fine of up to $1,000;
(3) Third offense and any offense thereafter - Class A infraction: a fine of up to $2,500 for each offense beginning with the third offense.
(Ord. O-C-19-3, passed 7-1-2019)