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Common sense, law fail to get drivers to move over in Virginia

An article on a local television station web site today told of two Virginia State Troopers who escaped serious injury in two separate incidents where motorists ran into their vehicles while the troopers were stopped on the side of Interstate 64 issuing tickets to other motorists. Sadly the troopers were participating in a weekend campaign to get the word out to “slow down, pay attention,  look where you’re going.” It seems that a lot of motorists in Virginia have not gotten that message.

My brother was a police officer for the city of Virginia Beach for thirty years and he was rear-ended by motorists on several occasions while he was pulled to the side of the road enforcing the traffic laws. You would think that it would make sense for a motorist to either slow down or change lanes if possible to safeguard a police officer or trooper who has pulled someone over instead of blasting past them at 70 mph and missing them by only a couple of feet. You would think so, but in Virginia you would be wrong.

So in an effort to enhance the safety of police officers and troopers while they are doing their job the state of Virginia enacted the ‘move over law’, which says that you must move over or slow down when you see an emergency vehicle pulled off the side of the road. Breaking the law is a class one misdemeanor that carries a $2,500 fine and up to 12 months in jail. Unfortunately, even this new law has not deterred drivers from blowing by officers stopped on the side of the road. My own sister-in-law was recently cited for violating the move over law. Just a week ago on I-664 a police officer had pulled someone over to the breakdown lane and except for myself and one other driver no one else slowed down or moved over.

I can only hope that over time knowledge of the new law will spread and do what common sense has failed to do. I am not sure how a police officer who already has someone pulled over can stop someone else at the same time for violating the move over law but I hope that the police will find an effective way to enforce the new law. Otherwise I am afraid that there will be more incidents like the two that happened this weekend, and that the officers involved may not be as fortunate as the two officers this weekend were. So please motorists of Virginia, heed the message the two State Police were trying to enforce. Slow down, pay attention, look where you’re going and move over.

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