Published: June 27, 2009 09:07 pm      

New Indiana laws take effect on July 1

Changes include cell phone ban for teen drivers

INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana drivers under age 18 will soon be breaking the law if they use a cell phone while driving, as will school bus drivers who fail to make sure all students are off the bus at the end of their routes.

The new laws, which take effect Wednesday, are among dozens enacted during the regular legislative session that ended April 29. Supporters say they hope the laws better protect the state’s young people.

Those caught ignoring the cell phone ban could face a fine of up to $500. Republican Sen. Thomas Wyss, of Fort Wayne, a co-sponsor of the ban, said teens are inexperienced drivers and cell phones are a major distraction. He also said teens should do more than just mail in their fines.

“I would suspect there are going to be areas, and I encourage it, where judges make them come into the courtroom and really answer to the charge,” he said.

School bus drivers also could face $500 fines if they fail to check for children on board at the end of their routes. The law arose after three South Bend students were left on school buses last year and a 4-year-old was left alone inside a parked school bus in Richmond earlier this year.

Another new law increases the prison term for anyone who murders or attempts to murder a pregnant woman and causes the loss of her unborn child.

The law came in response to the shooting of an Indianapolis bank teller in April 2008. Katherin Shuffield was five months pregnant with twin girls when she was wounded in the abdomen during a robbery. She survived, but her unborn twins did not.

Under current Indiana law, prosecutors are allowed to file murder charges if the mother is at least seven months pregnant, even if the fetus isn’t yet viable outside the womb. That law allows for a prison sentence of two to eight years, which supporters said wasn’t enough.

The new law allows six to 20 years of additional prison time for people convicted of attempted murder, murder or felony murder of a mother if they cause the loss of an unborn child. The new law allows the same prison sentence if only the unborn child dies.

Sen. Jim Merritt, an Indianapolis Republican who sponsored the bill, said Shuffield’s loss needed to be recognized.

“The penalty did not match the crime,” Merritt said of previous law.