Move Over Law

Here is another of those alerts that I receive in my email messages all the time. However, there’s a difference in this one, because it is mostly true. Failure to heed this one could cost you dearly, too.

The message I received told of a case in California where a driver was pulled over for not observing the “move over” law. The violator claimed that he was fined $754 and got three points on his license.

Well, the fine and the points seemed a bit excessive, so I went to the Snopes site to check out the veracity of the story.

There is a “move over” law in California–and in 47 other states as well, so that part was true. The law was passed in 2006, and took effect in January of 2007 in California, not on January 1, 2010 as was stated in the message. States that do not currently have the “move over” law are Hawaii, Maryland and New York, plus Washington D.C.

The law states (and I’m paraphrasing here) that when you approach a police car, or any emergency vehicle on your side of the road with the lights flashing, you must move over out of the lane closest to the vehicle. If traffic doesn’t allow moving over, or if it is only a two-lane road, you must slow down to 20 mph below the posted speed limit if the limit is over 25 mph. If the posted speed limit is 25 mph or less, you must slow to 5 mph before you pass the emergency vehicle.

The fine for an infraction can be up to $50, but I don’t know about the points. Since it is a moving violation, I suspect that 2 points would be about right, but it might depend on other factors.

According to Barbara Mikkelson, the Snopes answer lady, local police could add on some further penalty to the $50 fine, so a higher amount wouldn’t be unheard of, but not likely the $754 cited in the message I got.

In case you want to check this out for yourself–you can also watch a short video that shows what sometimes happens when the law is violated–here are two websites that you can visit:
http://www.snopes.com/politics/traffic/moveover.asp

http://www.moveoveramerica.com/

After watching the video, I think that even if I lived in one of the states that don’t yet have the “move over” law, I would try to observe it anyway.

Be careful out there!