Move Over to Save a Life
Florida’s Move Over Act has been in the news recently because of stepped-up enforcement. If you’re not familiar with the 2002 statute, it asks motorists to change lanes when approaching police and other emergency workers at the side of the road. If it’s not possible to change lanes safely or there’s no second lane, they must slow down substantially. The goal is to reduce the deaths of emergency workers and the people they’re helping, who are sometimes hit by passing motorists. According to the Florida Highway Patrol, drivers killed five people in this manner and wounded 419 others in the five years between 1996 and 2000, before the law was passed.
I was reminded of this law -- and some drivers’ objections to it -- when I saw this article in the Orlando Sentinel. Two people were killed on Interstate 4 in just such an accident. The victims pulled their pickup truck into the emergency lane and a tractor-trailer slowed to help them out. The driver of a car behind the large truck, not realizing anyone was in the emergency lane, swerved around it and hit them. In addition to killing both, the car’s driver is now hospitalized in serious condition. Everyone involved has my deepest sympathies.
This story illustrates how vitally important it is to be cautious around pulled-over vehicles -- and never to make assumptions when the vehicle in front slows down. It’s hard to track down statistics on how many people are killed in emergency lanes each year, but I know from my 35 years of experience as a Florida car crash lawyer that it’s a lot. And frankly, any number greater than zero is too many. An emergency lane is set aside for use in emergencies; we all have an interest in making it a safe place to get out and change a tire or make a phone call. Using it to pass is both dangerous and illegal. Speeding past law enforcement officers in the right lane is those things and foolish as well.
Given the sacrifices that Florida law enforcement officers and other emergency personnel make on our behalf, moving over or slowing down is the least we can do. And because I work with car, motorcycle and truck accident victims so often, I support anything that can reduce deaths and catastrophic injuries for civilians as well as law enforcement. Car wrecks cause deaths, brain injuries, catastrophic burns and other very serious injuries. If you or someone you love was hit in an emergency lane, I urge you to contact my firm, Cohn, Smith & Cohn, to learn more about your legal rights and your options.
