State Police crack down on Move Over Law
BATH, N.Y. (WETM) – New York State Troopers are cracking down on violators of New York’s newly updated Move Over Law.
The law became effective in 2012 and requires drivers to slow down, move into the center or left lane or attempt to do that when an emergency vehicle is pulled over.
It was expanded on March 27 to include all vehicles pulled off to the side of the road, not just emergency vehicles. State police hope to educate more drivers about traffic laws like these moving forward.
“I feel like some of the people in the bigger cities. Obviously they don’t see cars pulled over in the city a lot. So, they’re not used to traffic stops and stuff like that on the highways,” said State Trooper Brandon Wilson.
“I think the biggest part is just helping people understand what the laws are. Right? We’re out here. Yes, we’re enforcing it but your safety is paramount. We want to make sure people go home,” said State Trooper Lynnea Crane.
While going above 65 miles per hour on highways is breaking the law, officers have different preferences on when to pull someone over.
“You’ve gotta think about the weather obviously. The amount of traffic.”
“65 is 65, if you go 66 you’re breaking the law. So, I understand what you’re saying. Is there like a threshold where we start to pull vehicles over? It’s different for the amount of weather we have. So, obviously we don’t want to tell the public what that number is because they would drive to that limit, right? Where they know that they’re going to get pulled over, so we’re not going to increase the amount of speeding. People who are speeding.”
“And like I said, everybody has a different preference too. So, what I choose can be completely different compared to the next guy,” said Wilson.
The troopers pulled over three cars, all going more than eighty miles an hour on I-86.
The first two were issued speeding tickets, while the third car needed a little more investigative work.
“There’s a lot of things going on with it, right? We have a plate that doesn’t come back to the right vehicle. It comes back to a 2023 Chevy Suburban, white. Which this is not, it’s a Ford. We want to make sure there’s insurance. We have a suspended driver, a valid driver in the passenger seat. So those two would be and that’s what he was originally going to do. He was going to issue a ticket and then switch them. They’ll probably do an investigation to see if someone might be impaired also,” said Crane.
The driver was issued numerous tickets for a suspended license, license plates that didn’t match the car and a invalid vehicle identification number.
For more information on the Move Over Law, click here.
For statistics on reckless driving, click here.
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