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‘Move Over’ campaign for safety

Patrol alerts drivers to stopped buses, emergency vehicles

It happens daily that when an area bus driver is stopping to load or unload students, a car zooms right by.

“We will get one or two bus drivers a day who see this happen where drivers aren’t paying attention to the stopped bus,” said John Schwendeman, bus driver for Marietta City Schools. “A real problem area is at the intersection of Seventh Street and Greene Street.”

Those at the Ohio State Highway Patrol have launched a Move Over campaign to remind people to stop for school buses and to move over for emergency vehicles. The patrol is releasing public service announcements with patrol car video footage and making a push to enforce the law as part of the campaign.

State law requires motorists to move to the left lane when there is a vehicle flashing or rotating lights parked on the roadside of a four-lane road and to move to the right or out of the road to allow such vehicles to pass. If a driver can’t move over when there is an emergency vehicle on the shoulder, they are required to slow down.

Schwendeman also serves on the Warren Township Volunteer Fire Department and said that he sees motorists failing to move over for fire trucks and other emergency response vehicles quite frequently.

“People think we are asking for the right of way and we aren’t but the family of wherever we’re going are going to wonder why we didn’t get there faster,” he said. “A fire truck or a school bus is a big vehicle and when you have that on a smaller back road, it can create some safety concern.”

Sgt. Scott Buxton of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Marietta Post said this is a reoccurring problem that is noticed by himself and his officers.

“We get almost every school bus violation when it comes across our desk,” he said “We follow up with every single violation, too.”

Buxton said that passing a school pass that is loading or unloading children is a violation that doesn’t require a warning.

“Along with crashes, we can write tickets for passing a school bus without giving any kind of warning,” he said. “There’s probably an average of one incident every two weeks. It’s more common then it should be but not an everyday thing.”

He said he thinks some cases are due to driver inattention, rather than willfully violating the law.

“Distracted driving is almost as bad as impaired driving anymore,” he said. “When motorists are listening to their headphones, they could fail to hear the siren.”

Another issue with distracted driving is when drivers fail to move over to the adjacent lane when a vehicle with lights flashing is alongside the road.

According to a press release from the Ohio State Highway Patrol, from 2012 to 2016 highway patrol cruisers were involved in 73 crashes related to these kinds of violations. These crashes resulted in the deaths of two civilians, 24 injured officers and 32 injured civilians.

“If it isn’t distracted driving, it’s uneducated driving,” said Buxton. “People will say that they didn’t know it was a law.”

The Move Over law now exists in all 50 states. According to the FBI, from 2006 to 2015, 93 law enforcement officers across the United States were struck by vehicles and killed while working.

“By moving over, motorists are helping to protect the lives of everyone who works on or uses our roadways,” said Lt. Chris Chesar, commander of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Marietta Post. “It’s not just the law but it’s the right thing to do.”

According to Ohio State Highway Patrol, troopers wrote 12,179 citations for violations of the Move Over law from 2012 to 2016.

At a glance

¯ The Move Over Law in Ohio is sometimes forgotten by drivers and those at the Ohio State Highway Patrol want to remind the public.

¯ The law states motorists have to move to the adjacent lane when approaching a stopped vehicle with flashing lights.

¯ The patrol also has a campaign to remind drivers to stop for a stopped school bus.

¯ On a two-lane road, drivers traveling in both directions must stop at least 10 feet from the front or rear of the school bus picking up or dropping off passengers.

Source: Sgt. Scott Buxton, Ohio State Highway Patrol Marietta Post.

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