Council supports advanced policies on unlicensed drivers
BROWNSTOWN, Ind. (The Tribune) — Jackson County commissioners and council members approved resolutions expressing support of the assurance and enhancement of penalties towards unlicensed drivers this week.
One of the resolutions passed is in support of Brad’s Law, proposed legislation penned by Marine Corps veteran Mike Wright of Seymour.
Wright named the law after Brad Castner, a 27-year-old man from Holton who was killed in a head-on collision with an unlicensed driver in March of this year while on his way to work on the Fourth Street roundabout in Seymour.
Castner was killed the day after large numbers of citizens showed up to a Seymour city council meeting in opposition to the Burkart Opportunity Zone Agenda, which included a proposed Immigrant Welcome Center. The Jackson County Sheriff’s Department did not issue a press release of the incident and the county prosecutor’s office filed no charges for Castner’s death.
“The spirit of Brad’s Law addresses some specific failures in our justice system that contributed to Brad’s death,” Wright said. “The intent is to establish a better set of tools for our statewide justice system in addressing illegal immigrant crime.”
As stated in the resolution passed in support of the law, “Brad’s Law seeks to address significant public safety concerns by enhancing penalties for individuals knowingly operating vehicles without ever having received a license, particularly when such actions result in serious bodily injury, catastrophic injury, or death.”
The proposed legislation also, as stated in the resolution, “further holds accountable individuals and entities knowingly permitting or enabling unlicensed individuals to operate vehicles … includes critical provisions to address crimes involving non-citizens … [and] establishes mechanisms for statewide monitoring of non-citizen crime and the formation of a task force dedicated to preventing illegal immigrant crime.”
At the commissioners meeting on Tuesday morning, Commissioner Drew Markel commended Wright on his dedication to the research he conducted in order to write Brad’s Law.
“I do want to thank Mr. Wright and the Castner family for working on this,” Markel said. “The amount of work that’s gone into this, I’d say months of work that’s gone into pulling national data up, showing us what the problem is and giving us some different ways that this problem can be addressed.”
In Jackson County, there are 45 arrests monthly for unlicensed driving for a total in the last year of 540 arrests, with many arrests being summons to appear in court. The second resolution passed by commissioners and county council members this week is in support of a Detention and Documenting Policy.
“We’re starting to see this in the courtrooms in Jackson County, where individuals are showing up to court and they are notifying the judge that they are not who they said they were when they were arrested, which is causing an issue legally for the courts and obviously causes an issue when they’re being seen for their case,” Markel said.
Under Indiana Code 9-30-2-5, residents and non-residents arrested for traffic misdemeanors, other than operating while intoxicated, are released upon a written promise to appear in court later.
Under the proposed Detention and Documenting Policy, proper identification of unlicensed individuals will be ensured by detention and documentation, including fingerprinting.
Jackson County commissioners and council urge further support from other local governmental bodies.
This story was originally published by The Tribune on Nov. 22, 2024.