GEORGIA’S “MOVE-OVER LAW” SAVING LIVES
..WITH HIGH FINES AND HIGH PROFILE ENFORCEMENT
(ATLANTA) While police are looking for speeders, impaired drivers and safety belt violators at road checks this year, there’s another life-saving measure police are enforcing on Georgiahighways. It’s called the “Move-Over Law.”
Georgia’sMove-Over Law says drivers must move over for emergency vehicles stopped on the side of the highway. The law was passed to keep officers and violators pulled over during traffic stops safe from crashes with passing cars.
The Move-Over Law was passed in theaftermath of growing numbers of police, emergency technicians and DOT workers being killed during routine traffic stops, crash responses and highway construction projects around the nation. Right now, at least thirty-two states have Move-Over Laws on the books, with fines that range as high as a thousand dollars or more in some jurisdictions. The fine in Georgia is an “attention-getting” five-hundred-dollars.
But failing to obey the Move-Over Law can lead to consequences far more serious than fines. FBI statistics show traffic crashes currently claim the lives of more police officers than any other cause of death in the line of duty.From across the country, incident reports show emergency vehicles of all types have been struck while parked beside a highway, even while their emergency lights were flashing.
National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund figures show,of the 154 officers killed in the line of duty in 2004, seventy-two local, state and federal officers died in traffic-related incidents. According to data released by Concerns of Police Survivors, ten of those officers were struck and killed by passing vehicles while they worked outside their patrol cars.
In 2003, of the 132 police officers who died in the line of duty, 49 were killed in traffic-related incidents. Twelve of those officers were struck and killed while working outside their patrol units that year.
“Georgia’s Move-Over Law was meant to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities to police officers, paramedics, firefighters, tow truck operators and highway maintenance workers,” said Director Bob Dallas of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
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During 2003 alone, there were 78 crashes at State DOT worksites in Georgia and those crashes claimed the lives of 84 people. Three quarters of the crash victims were motorists and their passengers. Since 1973, the Georgia Department of Transportation has lost 56 state workers in roadside worksite crashes. Nationallymore than one thousand people were killed at worksite crashes across the country and another 41-thousand were injuredduring 2003, the latest year where total figures are available.
“Anyone who works alongside our highways is vulnerable, but police especially are in constant danger,” said GOHS Director Dallas. “All too often they’ve been “winged” by cars whizzing-by when officers approached vehicles pulled-over during traffic stops. By July of 2005, four officers have already been killed by passing motorists in this country this year.”
“The Move-Over Law was passed to keep motorists from running over us,” says one middle-Georgia police officer. “I’m willing to bet someone violates the new law every time we make a traffic stop.” Worse yet are the motorists who exceed the speed limit as they pass by dangerously close.
“It can be nerve racking,” says a deputy sheriff who works a coastal Georgia traffic enforcement unit. “Sometimes the trucks and cars are so close you can feel the wind from their side view mirrors blow across the back of your neck.”
The Georgia Move-Over Lawbecame effective July 1st, 2003. It requires drivers to move-overone lane when possible if an emergency vehicle with flashing lights is on the side of the highway. And if traffic is too heavy to move-over safely, the law requires drivers to slow down, belowthe posted speed limit and be prepared to stop. But not everyone has been moving over as required by Georgialaw and there are still too many close calls.
“Most drivers are courteous when an emergency vehicle is working the roadside,” said GOHS Director Dallas. “But drivers who aren’t so courteous have been receiving those expensive reminders since the Move-Over Law went into effect. “
ManyGeorgia law enforcement agencies have been writing those $500.00 tickets when they observe flagrant violations during road checks and concentrated patrols. Some police agencies now routinely assign patrol units to work in pairs, so that one officer can monitor ongoing traffic and cite drivers who fail to move-over or slow down while the second officer is working traffic enforcement.
GOHS Director Dallas said enforcement has been fair and drivers are not cited if the lane change can’t be made safely. But traffic enforcement officers’ observations at the scene and on-board patrol-car-video often do not support drivers’ claims that traffic wouldn’t allow them to move-over. Importantly, drivers have the option of slowing down if they can’t move-over.
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Director Dallas said, “When the required clearance is given to a roadside emergency vehicle, the margin of safety is increased not only for public safety and emergency personnel, but for passing motorists and their passengers as well. The Move-Over Law is another good reason to slow down onGeorgia’s highways and interstates. “
Although it’s been more than two years since the Move-Over Law went into effect, to increase driver awareness of this life saving statute, the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety has created informational brochures for year-round distribution at police road checks and Department of Driver Services locations throughout the state.
GOHS has also been working with the Georgia Department of Transportation to post informational road signs along major inbound highways near our state lines. And GOHS also includes news releases like this inevery highway safetymedia kit to encourage morestatewide news media coverageof Georgia’sMove-Over Law. Meanwhile, local police departments around Georgia are educating citizens at public events and continue to deploy high-profile enforcement measures for reminding careless motorists to use this common sense precaution behind the wheel.
A copy of Georgia’s Move-Over Law is also posted on the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety website. Visit us at ..And don’t forget to Move-Over.
Governor’s Office of Highway Safety
34 Peachtree Street—Suite 1600—One Park Tower—Atlanta, Georgia 30303
Visit us on the web at
Sonny Perdue, Governor Robert F. Dallas, Director