INDIANAPOLIS – The House failed to pass legislation Wednesday that would require nearly everyone to wear seat belts in Indiana – including people riding in backseats and those traveling in SUVs and pickup trucks.\nThe House voted 65-34 against a request by \nDemocratic Rep. Peggy Welch of Bloomington that members agree to changes the Senate made to the bill so it would go directly to Gov. Mitch Daniels for his consideration.\nWelch said she would now take the bill to a House-Senate conference committee in hopes of negotiating a version that could pass. She said the bill was about saving lives, and she would continue fighting for it.\nSome opponents said the bill was government intrusion, and others wanted to keep a provision the Senate removed that would have changed a formula used to dole out money for local road funding.\nOnly front-seat passengers and children under age 16 are required to wear belts, and young children must be in child-restraint seats. People age 16 and over are not required to buckle up in pickups but would have to under \nthe bill.\nThe legislation includes several seat belt exemptions, including for people using trucks on farms, people riding in parades and people in the back of ambulances.\nThe bill passed the House earlier on a 55-41 vote, but only after members included a provision to change the local road funding formula by phasing trucks into the equation over three years. Counting trucks in the formula, which is based on the number of vehicles in a county, would typically give rural areas increased road funding, while decreasing money for urban areas.\nThe Senate took that provision out.
Lawmakers approve changes to next-of-kin law
\nINDIANAPOLIS – The General Assembly passed legislation Wednesday that would prohibit people from making funeral arrangements for their spouses if they are accused in their deaths.\nThe Senate agreed to House changes to the legislation, \nso the bill next heads to \nGov. Mitch Daniels for \nconsideration.\nIndiana’s current next-of-kin law gives spouses automatic control over funeral arrangements, even if the spouse is accused in the death. The bill gives other family members that power if authorities believe a spouse or immediate relative committed certain crimes, including murder, to cause \nthe death.\n“No family member should ever have to negotiate with their loved one’s murderer for burial rights,” said Sen. Connie Sipes, D-New Albany. “The measure will help protect a family’s rights to make decisions in such tragic situation without this intrusion.”\nThe legislation was drafted after Zachariah Melcher, of Jeffersonville, Ind. was sentenced to life in prison for the 2005 deaths of his pregnant wife, 23-year-old Christian Melcher, and his 11-month-old son, Jaiden.\nChristian Melcher’s mother, Linda Young, has said she had to negotiate with Zachariah Melcher for the right to bury her family even though he admitted to the murders.\nYoung says Melcher insisted he be able to brag about the crimes’ details to a member of the family before he would give up control of the bodies. Eventually, Young says, her best friend listened for two hours as Melcher described the grotesque details of the killings and then signed the release to allow the bodies to be buried.
