Move-Over Laws Aim to Make Roads Safer

6/30/2010

Motorists have long heard tips about how to avoid accidents and unwanted claims with their auto insurance company while out on the road.

For example, the problem of distracted driving has received considerable attention in the past couple years, while past public education efforts have focused on other issues like drunken driving.

More recently, states have been responding to increasingly dangerous conditions for road workers and law enforcement officers by passing move-over laws that require motorists to allow a lane of distance between themselves and others on the side of the road.

States have also recently enacted tougher speeding fines and lower speed limits in an effort to protect workers and police officers on the side of the road. The organization Move Over America notes that only a handful of states have not yet passed move-over laws, adding that it supports such laws in part because 150 law enforcement officers have been killed on roadways in the past decade.

However, a recent Boston Globe report noted that highway conditions remain dangerous for workers and police, with one officer telling the newspaper that careless and unsafe driving is "just a sign of the times."

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