Published on Friday, April 14, 2006
in the Capitol News Service

Move-Over Campaign

Hundreds of police, paramedics and even tow-truck drivers are killed or injured every year in Florida because motorists don’t use caution when they approach parked emergency vehicles. The law requires you to move over or slow down, and authorities hope to get the word out with stickers on something you can’t avoid – the gas pump.

You’ll soon be seeing stickers on gas pumps all over Florida. They’re part of a new effort to let motorists know about the Move-Over Law requiring drivers to slow down and get out of the way when approaching a parked emergency vehicle.

Florida Highway Patrol Corporal Donnie Pitts knows he’s taking a risk every time he pulls over a car or stops to help a stranded motorist. He describes a few close calls.

“You can feel the wind coming off the vehicles from times where they’re that close, or you hear the tires on the roadway,” Pitts said.

Others aren’t so lucky. Broward County Sheriff’s Deputy Ryan Seguin is the most recent officer struck and killed by a car as he worked a traffic stop in February.

The statistics are grim. More police officers died from car crashes last year than gunshots. 1 out of 6 was hit by a vehicle. Police blame part of the problem on Florida’s heavy traffic. So what do you do if you can’t move over on a busy highway?

“The law requires the driver to slow down and approach the emergency vehicle that is stopped with caution and that’s simply what it says, because many times they can’t move to the center lane or move over because of the volume of traffic on the roadway,” said FHP Col. Chris Knight.

Nationwide, more than two dozen officers were struck and killed by cars while on the job last year.

The Move-Over Law education campaign was funded by a 175-thousand dollar state transportation grant. Authorities plan to have the stickers on every gas pump in the state over the next few weeks.