The New Move Over Law Gets Personal
No, I didnt get a ticket for failing to obey the new Ambrose-Searles Move Over Act that requires drivers to exercise due care to avoid colliding with an authorized emergency vehicle which is parked, stopped or standing on the shoulder of a road or highway with its emergency lights activated. More specifically, on parkways, interstates, and other controlled access highways with multiple lanes, drivers are required to move from the lane immediately adjacent to the emergency vehicle, unless traffic or other hazards exist to prevent doing so safely. So there we were stopped on the shoulder of the New York State Thruway, a controlled access highway,in the middle of a driving rain.Our vehicle was disabled because of a broken windshield wiper, making it impossible to see anything in front and extremely dangerous to drive. As we sat there, cars, trucks and buses were whizzing past in all three lanes of the thruway. Our vehicle shook violently from the wind created each time a bus or truck passed. The best the thruway police could suggest was making sure that the flashers were on and to wait for the help they sent to arrive. There was little doubt that if one of those fast moving trucks or buses hit us it would be ugly. Indeed while waiting for help to arrive I noticed headlights approaching from behind in the shoulder and thought it was the police until the vehicle moved to its left into the right moving lane. Thats when I realized that the other driver had come perilously close to hitting us. Sometime later a state trooper arrived and stopped his vehicle behind ours with its lights flashing. From that point on only a few cars passed in the right lane but all of the buses and trucks that passed us were in the middle lane of the thruway. Clearly the professional drivers were more cognizant of the new law and obeyed it. My experience made me come to appreciate the benefit of the new law. When youre in the shoulder and traffic is speeding past you cant help but think that with just one minor slip, a speeding vehicle could demolish you and yours. The extra lane in between the shoulder and the middle lane made for a much safer situation. The lawyers at Levine & Slavit have decades of experience handling personal injury claims including those involving auto accidents. For over 50 years spanning 3 generations, we have obtained results for satisfied clients. We have offices in Manhattan and Long Island, handling cases in New York City, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and surrounding areas. If you or someone close to you has been injured in a motor vehicle accident, contact the personal injury lawyers at Levine & Slavit for their help. To learn more, watch our videos.
