Dearborn County, IN Parking Rules: Abandoned Vehicles (2026)

The Dearborn County Code does not carry a stand-alone junk or abandoned vehicle chapter in the sections read for this page. The rule that reaches a vehicle left on a county road is § 70.05, Obstructions on County Road Right-of-Ways, adopted by the Board of Commissioners in 2006 and amended by BC Ord. 2023-005, passed 4-18-23.

Section 70.05(A) defines an OBSTRUCTION as any waste which, if not properly disposed of, creates a danger to public health, safety, and/or welfare, impairs the ability of Dearborn County employees to perform their job functions, and/or impairs the environment of the people of the county. The definition then lists what it includes, and the list opens with vehicles, trailers, and watercraft, followed by garbage, trash, refuse, debris, brush, tree trimmings, and motor vehicle parts including tires, furniture, posts, railroad ties, concrete blocks, brick or stone walls, and carcasses of dead animals.

Section 70.05(B) is the operative prohibition. No person, firm, corporation, or other legal entity in charge of, in control of, or in ownership of any obstruction can cause, allow, or permit it to be left on the trafficked portions of any county rights-of-way for any length of time. There is no grace period, no tag-and-wait notice, and no 48-hour or 72-hour clock in the section. The owner or the person in control is responsible, which includes a vehicle owner who lets a car, trailer, or boat sit on the roadway.

The reach of the section is the county right-of-way. It governs roads the county maintains in unincorporated Dearborn County. It does not address a vehicle parked on private property, and it does not print a towing procedure, an impound fee, or a required abandonment period. Streets inside Lawrenceburg, Aurora, Greendale, and the other towns, and state routes such as US-50, fall under other authorities. Police, postal, fire, EMS, and other governmental employees are exempt from the section when in the course of their regular duties.