Lawyers differ on safety concerns

A Halifax criminal lawyer says the province’s Move Over law creates more problems than it aims to fix, and he’s also taking issue with the way police enforce the legislation.

“My concern about that law has always been in its potential for actually causing an accident,” said Tom Singleton. “Someone sees the emergency lights, they suddenly have to slow down and try to pull over, and they’re not fully paying attention to their surroundings. That’s where it potentially creates a danger.

“I can understand the reason for it, to protect police officers and other emergency responders who are trying to do their duty. That’s a great objective. But it has the potential of creating a safety problem.”

Singleton, who has successfully challenged the law on one occasion, says it’s generally enforced through a suspect technique of entrapment. Generally, two police vehicles work in tandem. After one conducts a pullover, the other parks in front of the vehicles. That officer ensures motorists are slowing to 60 km/h while moving to the neighbouring lane, if safety permits.

Sometimes it’s an unmarked car conducting the pullover, which has the potential to further confuse drivers, said Singleton.

“The police should not be setting things up to try to entrap people,” said Singleton.

Nova Scotia RCMP is in the midst of a crackdown on motorists breaking the law. In Halifax alone, 19 drivers were charged by Halifax District RCMP last month, and 563 tickets were issued in the area from when the legislation came into effect, on May 1, 2010, to Feb. 6, 2018.

Fellow Halifax criminal lawyer Jonathan Hughes supports the law. He said like all laws, there is a multitude of ways to contest it. But in the two years he spent prosecuting traffic violations, he’s only witnessed a couple of people successfully beat the charge.

Furthermore, he said, he has not seen evidence to suggest the law has resulted in an increase in traffic accidents, and he insists the law is doing what it’s intended to do: protect emergency responders.

He also rejects the notion that the police are entrapping unsuspecting drivers.

“At the end of the day the whole purpose of that law is for officer safety,” said Hughes.

“If they’re setting out to ensure that law is enforced, there is no other way for them to enforce that law.”