West Virginia: Move Over Law aims to keep law enforcement officers safe
Being a law enforcement officer, firefighter or rescue squad member means being exposed to many hazards, and one top hazard is handling an emergency while traffic speed past at 70 mph or more.
On state highways such as the West Virginia Turnpike, troopers often see motorists come too close when their cruisers are handling a traffic stop. The cruisers’ blue lights are on for visibility and a warning.
Many of the drivers who do not pull into the furthest lane are from West Virginia, Sgt. M.K. Summers with the West Virginia State Police Turnpike detachment said.
“You do have to move over if you can or at least slow down if anything else is beside you,” he said. “I think from what I’ve seen working out here on the turnpike is that I see more West Virginia tags fail to pull over than out of state tags. Most of the time when I pull them over and talk to them about it, they aren’t aware of the law, and most of them think it’s a good idea.”
The regulations for safely passing emergency vehicles pulled over on highways are outlined in the West Virginia Code, WV Code17C Article 14.
State law requires drivers of any vehicle approaching a “stationary authorized emergency vehicle” displaying flashing lights whether they are blue, red and white, red and blue, amber or yellow lights to proceed with caution. Drivers must yield the right-of-way by making a lane change away from the emergency vehicle if this can be done safely.
Another way to comply is to maintain a safe speed, according to West Virginia Code. This speed should not be faster than 15 miles per hour on any undivided highway, and 25 miles per hour depending or road conditions if changing lanes would be impossible or unsafe.
State troopers are often able to recall close calls and mishaps that occurred because passing drivers got too close to pulled over vehicles. Summers remembered one instance several years ago in the southbound lanes of Interstate 77 when he was helping a stranded motorist change a flat tire.
“A logging truck came by and apparently he couldn’t slow down, and he came into the emergency lane and hit my vehicle,” Summers said, adding he had to grab a woman and little boy to pull them out of the way.
Being in close proximity to highway traffic makes troopers, deputies and other first responders more vulnerable to accidents. Cpl. R.T. Stinson of the West Virginia State Police Turnpike detachment recalled one instance when a trooper at a crash scene was hit by a school bus’s side view mirror. The new school bus was on its way to another state when a mirror bus drivers use to watch children around their vehicle came loose and hit a trooper. The trooper later recovered.
Stinson said he usually approaches a pulled over vehicle on its left side, but he could recall instances when passing cars would have come very close to him if he had been on the opposite side.
Motorists that violate state code and cause a crash by getting too close to first responder pulled off the highway face several penalties. Convicted violators would be guilty of a misdemeanor and face up to 60 days in jail, a fine of up to $500, or both.
If the violation results in the destruction of property, driving privileges could be suspended for 90 days. This suspension increases to six months if a person is injured. If the violation results in death, in addition to other penalties imposed, driving privileges could be suspended for two years, according to the state code.
Like Summers, Stinson has encountered motorists that do not know about the law requiring them to yield the right-of-way to emergency vehicles.
“A lot of people don’t realized it’s been enacted now for several years,” he said.
The same laws apply in Virginia, according to Corinne Geller, public relations director for the Virginia State Police. In Virginia, June was Move Over Awareness Month.
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