A type of off-road vehicle will not see street legality in Seymour after an ordinance brought to the Seymour City Council was voted down 1-6 on Monday.

Seymour resident Joe Wright came to the council in September to request street legality for side-by-sides, which are four-wheel off-road vehicles with seats that allow riders to sit next to each other.

Councilmen Bret Cunningham, Drew Storey and Jerry Hackney are on the council’s thoroughfare and drainage committee and said they would review similar ordinances from other communities that had street legal side-by-side usage. They said they would discuss their findings and proposed ordinance during Monday’s meeting.

Side-by-sides are not street legal in Seymour, but they are in Jackson County, Brownstown and Crothersville. They are also street legal in North Vernon.

The proposed ordinance said side-by-side drivers must obey all state motor vehicle laws, require a working muffler, have proof of a valid liability insurance, have a rollover protection system, have seatbelts and have at least one operating brake light.

It also includes a curfew between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. and drivers would have to be at least 18 years old, and passengers to be 8 years of age or older. Any passenger younger than 18 would be required to wear a helmet.

Those found in violation of the ordinance would be fined, ranging from $100 for the first violation and up to $1,000 and a lifetime suspension for habitual offenses.

Side-by-sides also would be required to be registered and inspected by the Seymour Police Department, and decals showing the vehicle’s registration number and year would have to be displayed. The ordinance was amended during the meeting to clarify that the registration would have to be renewed annually.

Councilman Chad Hubbard asked why there was an age minimum of 8 years old for a passenger.

Storey said state code requires certain weight limits and ages for passengers in car seats, and the committee wanted to go above what the weight limit would be.

Hubbard also asked about there not being a required horsepower rating or engine size in the ordinance.

Cunningham said engine size doesn’t necessarily dictate how loud a side-by-side would be. Storey said he didn’t see anything regulating engine size or horsepower in the other ordinances he had looked at.

Two people spoke in support of the ordinance, Bryan Bowman and Joe Wright, both of Seymour.

Bowman said he owns two side-by-sides and moved to the country two years ago. If the ordinance passed, he said he would love to ride his side-by-sides into Seymour with his children to run errands and visit the city. He also said side-by-sides are safe and his have roll cages.

Hubbard said it was an opinion to say side-by-sides are safe and asked Seymour Assistant Police Chief Greg O’Brien if he knew if Brownstown police officers have enforced side-by-side registration compliance.

O’Brien said he spoke with Brownstown Police Chief Tom Hanner and Assistant Chief Joe Kelly and said since they cannot pull people over to see if registration is compliant, the police department effectively can’t enforce if side-by-sides have been registered correctly.

Wright said riding in a side-by-side with children is no different than him driving in his Jeep with no doors and a top off with a 7-year-old buckled in the back seat. He recommended an age limit of 5 and said children under the age of eight can exceed the weight limit.

Two Seymour residents, David Fouts and Ed Kern, spoke in opposition of the ordinance.

Fouts asked if noise from the off-road vehicles will be regulated and said he didn’t believe side-by-sides were street legal in Indiana because they fall under different safety guidelines.

Cunningham said the ordinance requires a muffler and has a curfew to try to limit disruptions from side-by-sides. He also said it concerned him because since state law forbids side-by-sides to be driven on public highways, drivers would be forced to go through city neighborhoods.

Kern said years ago an ordinance was written up to allow all-terrain vehicles on city streets and the council at the time voted it down overwhelmingly. He said if side-by-sides become street legal it opens the door for other off-roading vehicles to be allowed on public streets and it would be difficult to enforce the ordinance against drivers.

O’Brien spoke in-depth about his opposition to the ordinance. He said in his research the largest city in Southern Indiana to allow off-roading vehicles in their town was Greensburg with around 11,000 people.

Seymour’s population is at 21,569 after the 2020 Census data was released this year.

Looking at surrounding communities that have street legal side-by-sides, O’Brien said North Vernon’s population is 6,735 and Browntown has 2,947 residents.

“I just don’t think off-road vehicles are going to be safe here in town,” he said. “We’ve got too much traffic.”

Side-by-sides can’t be on Ewing, Sixth, or Walnut Streets, O’Brien said, since they can’t be driven on public highways.

The assistant chief also said according to the Consumer Federation of America there were 124 deaths from side-by-sides from 2013 until 2021. Of those deaths, 69% of them were on highways and 18% were children less than 16 years of age.

O’Brien said Jeeps are built to be compliant to the National Transportation Safety Board’s standards. Even though side-by-sides have roll cages, O’Brien they’re designed to roll over off road and aren’t built to take an impact from another car.

Councilman Matt Wheeler casted the only favorable vote for the ordinance. Since the ordinance was voted down it will not be heard in a second reading from the council.

Toward the end of the meeting Storey recommended the governmental affairs committee look into creating a special event request process after seeing so much support for side-by-sides and hearing that a lot of people liked to visit Seymour during side-by-side rallies and fundraisers.

Seymour Mayor Matt Nicholson recommended the committee, consisting of Hubbard, Wheeler, and councilman Dave Earley, look into having a special event request process and come to the council with how to implement it.