'Confusing' Law Requiring Turn Signals In Indiana Could Be Repealed

A Republican lawmaker wants to readdress Indiana's turn signal laws at the start of the new year.

Senator Aaron Freeman is proposing legislation that would change the requirement for Indiana drivers to use their turn signals. Freeman doesn't want to get rid of current laws, he just wants to make them less confusing, according to a statement provided to WISH-TV.

Currently, there are two Indiana laws that address turn signals, 9-21-8-24 and 9-21-8-25. The former is the requirement to use your turn signal, while the latter introduces a distance requirement to use your turn signal.

"It may be easier to repeal IC 9-21-8-25 which is the statue requiring a specific distance, i.e. 200 feet or 300 feet. Just don't want to make it more confusing if there are 2 “reasonableness” statutes dealing with turn signals. Those were my thoughts going into this," Freeman said in a statement to WISH-TV.

According to Charlie Tinkle, Indiana Senate Republicans press secretary, the legislation does the following:

"The short explanation is that IC 9-21-8-24 is technically the requirement to give a turn signal, while IC 9-21-8-25 is the requirement to give the turn signal a certain number of feet before the turn. So, there is still a requirement to signal in code, it just no longer has an accompanying distance specification."

A summary of Freeman's Senate Bill 124 states he wants to repeal the statute requiring a turn signal before turning or changing lanes. The bill is scheduled to go in front of the General Assembly on January 11.