The raspberry-colored temporary sign placed along the eastbound shoulder of the West Shore Bypass approaching the Mount Penn exit on Wednesday morning warned motorists that it’s the law to move over for emergency vehicles.
It’s not quite that simple, but there’s only so much information you can put on a diamond-shaped, roughly 4-square-foot sign.
Regardless, the vast majority of drivers appeared to have at least tried to conform with Pennsylvania’s Move Over Law when they saw an SUV hitched to the back of a tow truck, which had its overhead lights flashing, on the shoulder of the bypass, which is also Route 422, in Exeter Township.
The truck-passenger-vehicle tandem was a prop for an enforcement detail conducted by Exeter Township police in cooperation with PennDOT to raise awareness of the law aimed at protecting emergency workers, including those who provide towing and roadside assistance services.
It’s unknown how many of the hundreds of drivers who passed by the emergency response area needed a sign to inform them of their responsibilities under the law.
The law defines an emergency response area as an area in which an emergency vehicle has its lights flashing, or where road crews or emergency responders have lighted flares, posted signs or try to warn travelers.
The two-year-old Move Over Law is a revamped version of the original law known as Steer Clear.
It requires drivers to merge into a lane farther away from the response area to provide a safety cushion between moving vehicles and workers such as police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians.
If traffic doesn’t allow shifting over to provide a one-lane cushion, drivers are required to slow down to below the speed limit but not more than 20 mph below the speed limit so as to not create another traffic hazard.
Drivers who neither moved over nor slowed down, as gauged by an officer perched on the East Neversink Road overpass, were stopped by an officer in a patrol vehicle at the merge of the bypass and Perkiomen Avenue, which is Business Route 422.
The number of drivers stopped and citations issued wasn’t available Wednesday.
Through the first half of 2022 crashes at emergency response scenes cost 32 workers their lives, said Kris Kerschner, law enforcement liaison with the Pottsville-based Highway Safety Network.
About 1 a.m. on March 21, two state troopers with Berks County ties were killed on Interstate 95 in south Philadelphia while placing a pedestrian in a patrol vehicle.
The woman driving the striking vehicle, Jayana Webb, 22, of Eagleville, Montgomery County, was charged with third-degree murder, homicide by vehicle, manslaughter a law enforcement officer, DUI and citations for speeding and careless driving.
Passing motorists saw Reyes Rivera Oliveras, 28, of Allentown, walking in the southbound lanes moments before troopers Martin F. Mack III and Branden T. Sisca responded, according to state police.
Sisca formerly worked as a Spring Township paid firefighter and had been serving as fire chief of Trappe Fire Company No. 1 in Trappe, Montgomery County.
Mack was a 2011 graduate of Albright College.
Wednesday’s Move Over Law enforcement was funded in part by part of PennDOT’s investment of federal funds from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Kerschner, who recently retired from his law enforcement career having served the last 22 years as chief of the Tulpehocken Township Police Department, said safety advocates are emphasizing the importance of drivers to slow down and be alert of the possibility of unexpected changes in road conditions such as an accident or a disabled vehicle, and move over when they can.
Ed Gouker, AAA manager of motorist services, said it’s shocking to see how many drivers don’t pay attention in their car going upwards of 60 mph.
Gouker said AAA provides a lot of training to “light service” workers — those who respond in smaller vehicles lighter than fuel-guzzling tow trucks — who are deployed for roadside emergencies such as accessing keys that have been locked inside a vehicle, changing a flat tire and fueling an empty gas tank.
Those workers are more vulnerable than tow truck operators because they typically spend more time outside of the vehicle. It’s especially dangerous if the emergency response scene is on the left edge of the road, he said.
After parking the prop lent by Bill’s Emergency Roadside Service LLC, Reading, along eastbound Route 422 just east of the underpass, Gouker peered into the rearview mirror of the truck and saw drivers clearly not paying attention to what was in front of them. Some were looking down at their phones, most likely texting, he said.
“It’s amazing to me that people are doing things in their vehicle other than paying attention to the driving task,” he said.
