OUR VIEW: Move over for emergency vehicles
Published 11:30 am Friday, August 12, 2022
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Every day emergency vehicles zoom down our streets, heading toward someone who needs help quickly. Those calls could be the difference in life and death.
A minute could mean the difference in losing a house in a fire or still be able to salvage much of your belongings.
Whether it’s an ambulance, a fire truck or a police vehicle, it’s important to remember that you’ve got to pull over and get out of the way. And no, that’s not advice — it’s the law.
Georgia’s Move Over Law says that vehicles traveling in the lane adjacent to the shoulder must move-over one lane when emergency and utility vehicles are stopped on the side of the highway and operating in an official capacity, according to the Georgia Highway Safety website. “Vehicles included in the law include all first responders (law enforcement, fire, EMS), utility vehicles, DOT vehicles, HERO Units and wreckers tending to an accident,” the highway safety website reads. “The law is meant to keep officers AND traffic violators safe from crashes with passing cars.”
We know for 99.9% of you, this is a no-brainer.
You hear an emergency vehicle coming and you get out of the way.
But we do see where people don’t get out of the way. They hear a siren at an intersection and think they can still get across beforehand. Or they don’t move over quickly to let an emergency vehicle pass.
Don’t be that person. It could very well be you that needs the help one day, and you’d want everyone to get out of the way. Have the same courtesy for others.