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  • DRIVER GUILTY IN TROOPER'S DEATH

  • Our compliments to Inside Edition

  • ROADSHOW: NEW CALIFORNIA `MOVE OVER' LAW TELLS DRIVERS TO STEER CLEAR OF FREEWAY INCIDENTS

  • THE BIGGEST RISK FOR COPS: NOT WHAT YOU THINK

  • CONNECTICUT LEGISLATOR TO PUSH FOR MOVE-OVER LAW

  • INDIANA TROOPER LUCKY TO BE ALIVE

  • TRAGEDIES INSPIRED 'MOVE OVER' LAW IN NORTH CAROLINA

    In 2001, N.C. Highway Patrol Trooper Calvin Taylor was killed when issuing a citation on Interstate 40. A year and a half later, a few miles down the interstate, Trooper Anthony Cogdill was killed when he was hit by a tractor-trailer as he also was issuing a citation. Paramedic Curtis Doi of Hendersonville was working a two-car wreck in 2001 when a van crashed through the scene, injuring Doi and four other rescue workers. And in 2003 medic Tim Hayes was caring for patients at the scene of a minor car crash in Mecklenburg County when a tractor-trailer slid on an icy road, causing a chain reaction crash that pinned Hayes against a guardrail, severing his legs. Lara Feinberg, whose husband was a N.C. Highway Patrolman and Taylor's friend and partner, decided to take action. "A day after Anthony Cogdill's funeral my husband pulled out of the driveway," she said. "I couldn't sit there and do nothing about it." She founded Families for Roadside Safety. Organizers began the Project Move Over to educate motorists about the law and raise awareness of roadside dangers. Feinberg, Doi and Hayes were speakers at a free symposium Saturday at Blue Ridge Community College to educate motorists about the N.C. Move Over Law. The Move Over Law, which was passed by the Legislature within three months after Taylor's death, requires motorists, when approaching a parked or standing emergency vehicle with its lights flashing on a multi-lane highway, to move to a lane not nearest the emergency vehicle if possible, and reduce speed. The law was amended in 2006 to include stiffer penalties for drivers who do not move over. The stiffer penalties went into effect in July. The citation is now $250 instead of $25, plus court costs. Tow trucks were also added. If a tow truck is assisting a disabled or wrecked vehicle, motorists must also move over. If the motorist does not slow down, prepare to stop and move over and a person is seriously injured or dies, the motorist is now charged with a felony. "We want people to know what could happen when they don't follow the law," Doi said. "FORS was created to make the laws stricter, so people would be safer working on the roadside." In addition to the law passed by the state legislature, the group also focused on improvements on the highways. Rumble strips, rivets placed on the shoulder of the highways near the outside white line, were 3 feet from the line. "Now they are placing them 6 inches from the white line," Feinberg said. "The N.C. Department of Transportation said that by 2010 the rumble strips will be on all major highways and interstates." In Haywood County, where the troopers died, DOT has made four areas along Interstate 40 with wider shoulders for the use of emergency personnel. "Hopefully, we will see this in other areas of the state," Feinberg said. "Lives can and will be saved if people learn about the law and understand the law." The FORS group is now raising funds for a statewide billboard campaign and reaching out to other states.In 2001, only five states had Move Over Laws. By January, 41 states will have the law, Feinberg said.For more information about FORS and the Move Over Law, visit www.familiesforroadsidesafety.

  • STATE MOVE OVER LAW NOW HAS TEETH

  • PENNSYLVANIA PASSES MOVE-OVER LAW

  • TENNESSEE ACCIDENT REENFORCES MOVE-OVER LAW

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