Tougher penalties coming for drivers who fail to move over for emergency vehicles
Pennsylvania is bolstering a law intended to protect people in disabled vehicles and the first responders who come to help them. Here’s what you need to know about the law going into effect in three weeks.
What is the Move Over Law?
The Move Over Law is an updated version of a 2017 law that requires drivers to give disabled vehicles and first responders a wide berth. Under the law, drivers need to give emergency response areas a full lane of space to operate. If a tow truck is in the shoulder of a fourlane highway, for example, drivers need to leave the right lane and get in the left lane. Drivers who can’t change lanes need to slow down and drive carefully.
People who follow the minutia of traffic safety laws may remember this used to be called the Steer Clear Law. When lawmakers altered it last fall, they rebranded it the Move Over Law, reasoning the new name better instructed drivers on what they needed to do.
How is it different than the last version?
Lawmakers updated the bill in October without a single opposing vote, and the changes go into effect April 27. For the most part, the bill introduces stiffer penalties. Drivers who fail to move over when possible will see steeper fines, with a maximum charge of $2,000 for people who are convicted of violating the law on at least three occasions. Each violation now comes with two points on a person’s driver’s license.
The law also adds a penalty of up to $10,000 for drivers who fail to move over and injure or kill someone near a disabled vehicle.
The updated law also spells out that “careful” drivers who can’t move over must pass the disabled vehicle at a speed at least 20 mph below the posted limit. Let’s say a driver is in the right lane of Route 22 near the 15th Street interchange, for example, and sees two damaged vehicles pulled over on the shoulder. Congestion is heavy, preventing the motorist from getting into the left lane. The speed limit there is 55 mph, so the driver would need to slow down to at least 35 mph to comply with the Move Over Law.
Why did lawmakers update the Move Over Law?
First responders leave themselves exposed when they report to crashes on active roads and highways, and laws like this are intended to minimize the risks they face. The penalties are more aligned with laws that protect road crews facing similar risks in construction zones.
When they proposed the update, Sens. Doug Mastriano and Kim Ward cited a number of high-profile crashes from last year, including the death of a tow truck driver. The senators didn’t identify the fatal crash, but they appear to be referring to the death of Tyler Laudenslager, who was killed in a multivehicle crash on Interstate 78 in Berks County last summer.
However, the Move Over Law doesn’t neatly apply to the crash that killed Laudenslager. In that case, a speeding vehicle rear-ended a commercial vehicle; swerved across the highway; slammed into Laudenslager, who was standing beside his truck; hit a second tow truck; and traveled a fifth of a mile before coming to a halt.
That’s not to suggest the Move Over Law is a solution in search of a problem. A day after Laudenslager’s death, a state trooper was hurt on I-78 in Upper Macungie Township while responding to a tractor-trailer that had caught fire. The trooper had parked his unmarked vehicle partially in the right lane and partially in the shoulder and lit his emergency lights when his vehicle was hit by a sport utility vehicle. Both vehicles were knocked onto their sides, though the trooper was released from the hospital the same day.
And in 2019, a 33-year-old trucker pulled his broken-down big rig onto the shoulder of Route 33 South. When he got out of the vehicle to inspect the damage, he was fatally hit by another vehicle that had wandered into the shoulder.