Published on Friday, March 3, 2006
in the CBS 4 News, Miami

Troopers Start Crackdown On Move Over Law

If you fail to get out of the way of police officers and emergency workers along South Florida streets and highways, you could end up with a lighter wallet or a day in court. Thursday, FHP troopers stepped up enforcement of the state’s Move Over law.

The law was passed by Florida legislators in an effort to keep emergency workers and police officers safe as they did their job at accidents and traffic stops, but Troopers say public awareness of the law is low. Just two weeks ago, a Broward County Sheriff’s deputy was killed when he was hit by a car while on a route traffic stop.

The needless death has Troopers determines to remind people that the law requires drivers to move over one lane when they see officers by the side of the road. If they can’t move over, they are required to slow down.

Thursday, dozens of drivers got an instant education in the new law when troopers stopped them and issued tickets for failure to move over.

Each time they stopped a driver to issue the ticket, someone blew past them and prompted another stop.

As one trooper put it, “sometimetimes it's easier to get attention with a kind word and a ticket book, than with just a kind word."

Troopers say the crackdown will continue, and officers will make it a priority on their regular patrols.