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Any moron that can't pass a vehicle stopped on the shoulder without smashing into it won't be affected by any law.
The problem is drivers who overreact. Everyone is traveling at the same speed, and then there are flashers ahead. Some people slow down and/or change lanes, and others don't, and quite a few of them shift their attention to the flashers, and don't pay attention to the changes in the traffic flow. Then is when accidents happen, often involving cars being forced off the road and into the emergency vehicles.
There is no excuse for cops writing tickets on the shoulder, when the offending car can be escorted off the next ramp.
It's like the school zone paradox. Pay more attention to your speedometer than to the crosswalks, and see what happens.
The problem is drivers who overreact. Everyone is traveling at the same speed, and then there are flashers ahead. Some people slow down and/or change lanes, and others don't, and quite a few of them shift their attention to the flashers, and don't pay attention to the changes in the traffic flow. Then is when accidents happen, often involving cars being forced off the road and into the emergency vehicles.
There is no excuse for cops writing tickets on the shoulder, when the offending car can be escorted off the next ramp.
It's like the school zone paradox. Pay more attention to your speedometer than to the crosswalks, and see what happens.
No, the problem is drivers that are doing something other than driving....texting, playing with some gizmo, etc.
Thanks for posting this, Buzz. Having lived in MD/DC for the past 25 years (the only places in the continental U.S. that don't have such a law), I was unaware of this requirement.
MD does not need this law since the entire freeway, even 3 or 4 lanes over, usually screeches to a halt whenever a cop pulls someone over.
I have the solution. First, lets look at this from the both sides. A good law designed to protect the officer and pulled over person. There have been crashes where people have been killed or smashed into the pulled over vehicles. We know this and have all seen the dash cam videos on Discovery channel or other reality show.
The other observation is that in most scenarios, traffic by "default", slows down as a whole when a police vehicle is on the side of the road, pulled over a car or not. We have all come to deal with miles of traffic all to see it was just a pulled over vehicle. If not, we all react the same. We see the pulled over police car, lights flashing, and we look down at the speedometer, and apply the break and slow down. Most change lanes.
You also have what some others have noted that if safety is a concern, have the officer on the builtin bullhorn, (all police vehicles have them), direct the car they are pulling over to take the next exit and pull into a safe location "Off road". This seems like an excellent solution. This may not be viable is all situations though as it depends. Is the next exit 2 miles away ?, was the pulled over vehicle swerving ? ( you dont want the drunk driving pulled over guy moving again do you ? )
So there are 2 reasons above against the law principal and 1 for it. But the 1 involves personal safety. I think it is fine but it should be used with discression. I can see where sates such as New Jersey would take advantage of this to generate revenew, where as a state like North Carolina, not as busy would only issue it if someone blew past a pulled over scene and it was a close call.
The question is, this would be a tough one to defend in court, if police did abuse it. So, the simple solution is this, if you are pulled over for violating this and issued a ticket, and you did use caution, have your attorney request the video playback of the dash mounted video camera of which "ALL" are police are required to have running. This would show the traffic flow and "your" vehicle passing by. "The proof is in tasting the pudding" so-to-speak. No video camera working? case dismissed. They are tested and if they malfunction, the officer needs to head in to the fleet maintenance to have it swapped out, or swap vehicles. Make this written law.This video would show the truth plain as day.
Now you have the protections in place for the officer and pulled over person safety and a method to protect any abuse if someone is issued a summons.
Folks, it's just common sense AND coomon courtesy to move over for ANY vehicle on the shoulder, police officer, tow truck driver, car or truck driver making emergency repairs. Heck, it's OK to move over for pedestrtians and bicyclists on a road, if you can safely do so. For me, if it's the choice between giving someone on the shoulder an extra margin of safety or impeding faster traffic for a brief moment, I vote for impeding traffic!
Unless you're selfish or clueless, the name of the game ought to be "look out for each other" on the road...
Question is What if the traffic in the other (inside lane) lane is very heavy and you cant safely move to that lane as you approach the police parked to the right of the lane you are in?. What are you suppose to do?...Force your way into the left lane causing cars in that lane to have to slam on brakes to let you in or wreck or Stop dead in the right lane and wait until you can move over.? Keep in mind that you CANT GO PASS THE POLICE CAR without breaking the law if you stay in the right lane. Some clarification is needed.
This is a copy of an email I got. I have always tried to do this, but I didn't know it was a law in effect since 2003. I think it is a law that is seldom heeded, so I often wondered why they didn't make it one.
New Law: If a patrol car is pulled over to the side of the road, you have to change to the next lane (away from the stopped vehicle) or slow down by 20 mph. Every state except Hawaii and Maryland and the D.C. has this law.
In California , the "Move-over" law became operative on January 1, 2010. Move Over America | Protect Law Enforcement Officers
A friend's son got a ticket for this recently. A police car (turned out it was 2 police cars) was on the side of the road giving a ticket to someone else. He slowed down to pass but did not move into the other lane. The second police car immediately pulled him over and gave him a ticket. He had never heard of the law.
It is a fairly new law that states if any emergency vehicle is on the side of the road, if you are able, you are to move into the far lane. The cost of the ticket was $754, with 3 points on your license and a mandatory court appearance.
Please let everyone you know that drives about this new law. It is true (see details at the following web address). snopes.com: 'Move Over' Traffic Laws
Though 20mph sounds like a lot and may be downright silly depending on the circumstances (what if the speed limit is 25?), at least there some fixed standard. Here in Illinois there is a "move over or slow down" requirement but the law doesn't specify how much you should slow down. It's completely up to the discretion of the officer to determine if you slowed down enough or not. The Illinois law was an overreaction to a drunk driver hitting an officer who had someone else pulled over. Best I know, it was already against the law to drive drunk and/or run over police officers who have someone pulled over. But now they have a tool to pull people over because they didn't slow down enough to satisfy the officer, and there are lots of complaints that the "officer discretion" part of the law is being abused. Additionally, the law is called "Scott's Law," which in terms of getting the word out about the law, is a lousy name. Nobody knows what the hell "Scott's Law" means; they should have just called it the "Move Over or Slow Down Law."
I was on the road when an ambulance was heading our way with lights and siren on. I turned on my turn signal to the right, slowed down as I went to the shoulder, and stopped. I think I was the only one who gave way. If you watch some of those police videos, you'll see plenty of instances of people hitting either the cop, the cop's car, or the other car even though they are completely off the road. In one video, the cop instructed the driver to walk with him off into the grassy area because he didn't want her to get hit. Right when he said this another vehicle hit their vehicles.
Keep in mind that you CANT GO PASS THE POLICE CAR without breaking the law if you stay in the right lane. Some clarification is needed.
Yes you can. Every "move over" law I have seen or heard about doesn't say you HAVE to no matter what move over to the other lane. They say to slow down if you can't move over safely. Some locations give a speed you have to fall UNDER, some give what should be a common sense amount. Like: slow down to a reasonable and prudent speed, slow down to a safe speed, slow down 20 (or 25, 30 , 35 MPH), etc.... It should be noted that they write the law with the notion that slowing down 20 MPH would be 20MPH under the posted speed, not 20MPH slower when everybody is traveling 25+ MPH higher than the posted speed.
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