Renewed Push To Move Ind. Off Eastern Time

(Indianapolis, Ind.) - A new effort has started to move most of Indiana back to the Central Time Zone. 

Lawmakers approved moving the state to Eastern Time and adopting Daylight Saving Time in 2005. Hoosiers in some parts of the state didn’t mind the switch, but others want Indiana’s clocks to go without any springing forward or falling back.

The Central Time Coalition is leading the effort, claiming the number of days the state will experience sunrise before 7:00 a.m. will increase from 120 to 315 days. 

Indiana should “be restored to its geographically correct Central Time Zone,” the group’s website states.

A large part of the argument made by Sue Dillon and others is safety. She formed the coalition after a Carmel High School student was hit and killed waiting in the dark for the school bus in Indianapolis in 2009. 

“It’s dangerous for kids waiting on school buses and walking on streets, but it’s also dangerous for teenagers, inexperienced drivers driving on winter roads,” Dillon said.

Later sunrises have also cost taxpayers, the group claims. Two-hour winter school delays cost taxpayers $59 million a year. Another hour of sunlight to help melt ice on roads would cut back on the number of delays.

Currently, 80 percent of Indiana’s 92 counties are on Eastern Time while the remaining 20 percent of the counties in the Chicago area and along the Illinois border remain on Central Time. The coalition said the old way was better, when 96 percent of counties were Central Time followers, while just four counties – Dearborn, Ohio, Clark, Harrison, and Floyd – or four percent were on Eastern.

Advocates plan to push elected officials to make the change during the next session at the Statehouse and on Capitol Hill. 

A similar plan died in committee earlier this year.