Move over or pay the fine

July 6, 2007

By Hannah Guillaume

Frontiersman

MAT-SU - A highway safety bill known as the Move Over Law took effect yesterday and requires vehicles to move over for parked vehicles with flashing emergency lights on roadways with two or more lanes in the same direction when traffic conditions safely permit.

Otherwise, drivers must noticeably slow down. Drivers on roads with two lanes in opposing directions are required to noticeably slow down. This law includes fire department and law enforcement vehicles, tow trucks picking up a vehicle and animal control officials performing their duties.

Darin Minkler, a tow truck driver for Matanuska Towing and Recovery, said in 21 years of driving he can easily remember six tow truck drivers working on road sides and being struck by moving vehicles.

&#8220I personally got hit once - just with a mirror - but it hurt,” he said. &#8220My hope is that folks will slow down when they see the lights. Quite often our lives are completely ignored.”

Minkler said he was sweeping away accident debris when he was struck by a truck driver looking at the accident. Working the Glenn Highway during rush hour is spooky, because vehicles often fly by him at 70 mph with just inches to spare. His father Duane, who also drives tow trucks, campaigned hard for the law not just for their lives, but the lives of all emergency and safety personnel.

The law is a revision of one that passed last year, which law enforcement said was unenforceable because of vague wording.

Capt. Dennis Casanovas of the Alaska State Troopers said he conducts traffic stops weekly on the Glenn and Parks highways and watches lots of drivers not move over. He believes most people aren't aware of the law and hopes the revision will prevent future collisions.

&#8220It's those types of crashes, that in this case injured the officer and also injured occupants of the other vehicle that had already been stopped,” Casanovas said.

Violators will get a two-point ticket and receive a $150 fine. Any injuries that occur because the driver fails to slow down or move over will result in a mandatory court date, said Megan Peters, spokeswoman for the Alaska State Troopers.

&#8220We will be enforcing this,” she said. &#8220We've had people have to medically retire because they were injured.”

She added that it isn't just seen as a trooper protection law. Troopers will ticket drivers who fail to exercise due caution for EMS, fire, tow truck and animal control. No troopers in Alaska have ever been killed from being struck by moving vehicles while working on the sides of roadways. Since 2000, 67 law enforcers have been killed in the United States from being struck by a vehicle while on the side of the road, according to Alaska State Troopers.

Contact Hannah Guillaume at 352-2284 or hannahguillaume@yahoo.com.