Ohio's 'Move Over' Law Now Protects Tow Trucks and Road Crews: Effective December 19, 2013

Published December 16, 2013 · New Laws

A tow operator is winching a stalled sedan onto his flatbed on the shoulder of I-75 south of Dayton. His amber lights are flashing. Traffic in the right lane is passing within a few feet of him at 65 miles per hour, and one driver, looking at a phone, drifts onto the shoulder. This Thursday, December 19, 2013, Ohio law gives that tow operator, and the road crews and highway maintenance workers who share the shoulder with him, the same protection that has long been given to police officers and firefighters. Senate Bill 137 of the 130th General Assembly takes effect, broadening Ohio's "Move Over" law, R.C. 4511.213.

What the law requires

As of December 19, a driver approaching a stationary vehicle that is displaying flashing, oscillating, or rotating lights must take one of two actions if the vehicle is any of the following:

• a public safety vehicle,
• an emergency vehicle,
• a road service vehicle,
• a vehicle used by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio to conduct motor vehicle inspections, or
• a highway maintenance vehicle.

On a highway with at least two lanes in the driver's direction, the driver must proceed with due caution and, if possible and safe given road, weather, and traffic conditions, move into a lane that is not next to the stopped vehicle. If the road has only one lane in that direction, or if changing lanes is not possible or would be unsafe, the driver must proceed with due caution, slow down, and maintain a speed that is safe for the conditions.

Ohio has had a move-over requirement for some years. The previous version was aimed at public safety and emergency vehicles. S.B. 137 broadens the statute so that, on its face, it now reaches road service vehicles such as tow trucks, highway maintenance vehicles, and PUCO inspection vehicles as well. The people who work out of those vehicles, tow operators, ODOT and county crews, and inspectors, spend their shifts standing beside live traffic, and they now have an explicit statutory rule written for their protection.

The penalties

A violation is a minor misdemeanor, but the statute directs the court to impose a fine of two times the usual amount. A driver with a prior qualifying traffic offense within the preceding year faces a fourth-degree misdemeanor, and two or more priors within a year raise it to a third-degree misdemeanor. The law also says, in so many words, that it does not relieve the driver of the stopped emergency or service vehicle from the duty to drive with due regard for everyone else on the road.

Why this matters for injured people

Our practice is not traffic court. The reason we are writing about a traffic statute is that it changes the civil case for a roadside worker, or anyone standing near a stopped service vehicle, who is struck by a passing car.

A specific standard of care. In an ordinary negligence case the injured person must prove the driver failed to act as a reasonably careful person would. That invites argument: the shoulder was narrow, the lights were hard to see, everyone drives that fast there. When the General Assembly has enacted a specific safety rule, a violation of that rule can establish negligence as a matter of law, a doctrine known as negligence per se. We explained how the doctrine works, and its limits, in an earlier post on negligence per se. R.C. 4511.213 is exactly the kind of specific rule that fits: move over or slow down when you approach flashing lights. A driver who did neither has a hard time arguing he was careful.

A citation that follows the driver into the civil case. Officers responding to a shoulder crash will now have a clear basis to cite the passing driver. That citation, and any conviction or guilty plea, becomes part of the evidence in the injury claim.

Recognition of the danger. Jurors understand instinctively that a person working on the shoulder of an interstate is vulnerable. A statute that singles out those workers for protection reinforces that understanding and undercuts the defense that the worker "should have known" traffic would be close.

Who the statute helps

The most obvious beneficiaries are tow operators, who are struck and killed at the roadside with disturbing regularity, and the highway maintenance and construction crews who work behind a line of cones. But the statute protects everyone near a stopped vehicle with activated lights, including:

• The motorist whose car broke down and who is standing with the tow operator.
• Police officers and firefighters at a crash scene, as before.
• Utility and inspection personnel in marked vehicles with the required lighting.
• Passengers and bystanders who happen to be in the zone that a careful driver would have avoided by moving over.

For workers, a crash on the job raises the two-track question we see often: workers' compensation covers the medical bills and part of the lost wages, while the third-party claim against the at-fault driver covers the rest, including pain and suffering. The key point is that the driver's auto liability policy, and potentially the injured person's own underinsured motorist coverage, are available in addition to workers' compensation. Keep in mind that the Bureau of Workers' Compensation will assert a lien against the third-party recovery, a subject we covered in an earlier post on the BWC lien.

Proving a move-over case

The facts that win a shoulder-strike case are time-sensitive. In a Dayton-area case our office moves promptly to secure:

• The crash report and any citation issued under R.C. 4511.213.
• Photographs of the scene showing lane configuration, the position of the stopped vehicle, and sight lines.
• Confirmation that the stopped vehicle's lights were operating, from the operator, the vehicle's equipment, and witnesses.
• Statements from passing motorists who saw the striking driver fail to move over.
• Evidence of distraction, including phone records where the facts justify a preservation demand.
• Traffic-camera or business video where any exists along the route.

Because many of these crashes involve commercial vehicles or occur in work zones on I-70 and I-75, they often implicate the heavier issues we cover on our car and truck accidents page, and the general rules on our car accident page apply as well.

What this means for you

If you drive, the practical instruction is simple: when you see flashing lights on the shoulder, move over a lane if you safely can, and slow down if you cannot. Starting December 19, that is the law for tow trucks, road crews, and inspection vehicles, not only for police and fire.

If you work at the roadside, or if you or a family member has been struck by a passing driver while stopped on the shoulder, this statute strengthens your claim. The violation can establish negligence, the citation is evidence, and the available insurance usually goes beyond workers' compensation. The evidence, as always, is freshest in the first days.