INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana should establish a centralized administrative court to handle traffic infractions issued to commercial truck drivers, a retired Porter County judge told lawmakers investigating a rash of fatal wrecks involving semitrailers.

Senior Judge Raymond Kickbush said many local judges and prosecutors have very limited knowledge of the voluminous federal rules regulating commercial driver's licenses. The lack of expertise, he said, often allows truck drivers charged with drunken driving to keep their licenses despite federal rules mandating suspensions.

"The judges I've talked to, I found, didn't know beans about this," Kickbush told the Legislature's Interim Study Committee on Transportation Matter on Tuesday.

Lawmakers delved into semi safety the same day a Michigan truck driver was sentenced to four years in prison for causing a 2006 crash on Intestate 69 in Indiana that killed five people from Taylor University.

Indiana State Police Superintendent Paul Whitesell told lawmakers his agency would need a $6 million annual funding boost to restore the commercial vehicle inspection unit to staffing levels in place 15 years ago. State police deployed 139 inspectors in 1992, he said, but now has just 85 inspectors, meaning most state weigh stations go unstaffed a majority of the time.

Meanwhile, Kickbush advocated a state commercial vehicle court staffed by regional hearing officers who know the commercial vehicle code inside and out. He said the more administrative statewide court, to be modeled after the worker's compensation system, could transfer serious cases involving deaths or potential prison sentences back to the criminal courts.

Kickbush said he has spent the past five years performing judicial outreach on commercial vehicle laws and has encountered many judges and prosecutors who don't realize truck drivers are not eligible for DUI diversion programs or hardship licenses allowing them to continue driving for work.

The legislative panel also heard from American Trucking Association Vice President David Osiecki, who said the rate of fatal accidents involving semis has been cut in half since 1975. He said the industry group is lobbying Congress to mandate technology limiting truck speeds to 68 mph and is pushing for a national database of positive driver drug tests that employers could consult before making hires.