Legislature passes law to deal with Massholes too stupid to understand flashing blue lights
By adamg - 12/16/08 - 9:14 am
Channel 7 reports the legislature has passed a measure requiring motorists to slow down and move over when they see flashing blue/red lights on the side of the highway, rather than continuing to drive straight into a cruiser or whatever, like they now do with some regularity.
Comments
WTF?
This is a NEW LAW in MA?
I had a friend in high school who failed to do this during her driving test in 1982 - she didn't immediately slow and change lanes - and the license examiner closed the clipboard, drew a slash across the incompleted portion of the check list, and immediately failed her.
rush hour fun
While in general it is a good idea to pull over - this now means that 'officially' a highway lane is closed whenever some goober gets a ticket?? What happens in rush hour gridlock - do you now ticket everyone in 2mph traffic for not switching lanes?
Well...
It sounds like your friend in high school got what she deserved! The license examiner was absolutely right to flunk her. That was extremely dangerous, irresponsible driving on her part. Wasn't she taught anything about pulling over and out of the way for an emergency vehicle?
Regarding the new law here in the Bay State about that; Having been a licensed driver since I was a Senior in high school (40 years ago, at this time), if I understand correctly, there always was some sort of a law about moving over and out of the way the minute one sees those red/blue beacons flashing, only it wasn't officially enforced.
Not long ago, when I was walking along Cambridge Street, in Cambridge, I noticed a police car coming, and the people in cars refused to cooperate by pulling over to the right, like they should've. The police car was forced to drive totally in the oncoming lane, and, had there been a car coming in the opposite direction at that time, somebody or other would've been badly injured....or killed!
It never used to be that way, either. Hopefully, people will cooperate and get right the hell out of the way of an emergency vehicle when this new law is enforced, if it hasn't been already.
Fear of being t-boned by a bonehead
I'm going to go with the guess that people are uncomfortable with pulling out into an intersection because they are worried about being t-boned by someone who doesn't realize that the reason that he's pulling out into the intersection is because of an emergency vehicle.
Try again
Read the issue again Independent. The law (and that driving example) are about pulling into another lane when there is a STOPPED police car on the side of the road. This is not about yielding to a moving emergency vehicle.
Stopped Emergency Vehicles, Moving Cars
I was taught to:
1. slow down when approaching the emergency vehicle
2. Look carefully for people in or crossing the road, and for debris in the roadway
3. change lanes if possible
4. stop and wait to change lanes or wait for oncoming traffic to clear
No wonder there are so many stories of cops getting wiped of the road while assisting stranded motorists - I even had a housemate who lost his father to such an incident. I have always been surprised that there didn't seem to be any consequences or citations as a result, unless the driver was drunk.
not what this law is about
That was extremely dangerous, irresponsible driving on her part
Bzzzzt, thank you for playing and not having read your driver's manual. http://www.mass.gov/rmv/dmanual/chapter5.pdf
Ie, don't see the lights, freak out, and pull to the right and smack into the back of a parked car, or kill a bicyclist, pedestrian, etc...or slam on you brakes and get rear-ended by the cop or the guy behind you who hasn't seen the cop yet.
Second, and this is an increasing pet peeve of mine with UHubers: Folks, read the article before you comment. None of you understand what this new law is about. It's not about "pulling out of the way". It's about MULTI-LANE roads and yielding the right-most lane to a STOPPED EMERGENCY VEHICLE, which is something you should do for ANY stopped vehicle if it is safe to do so. You'll see truckers do this quite often- it's considered good, safe highway "manners".
What would have made more sense, unfortunately, would have been an overhaul of the law which makes everyone pull to the right for responding vehicles. Near intersections, both lanes can be packed with cars and there's nowhere for anyone to go on roads like huntington avenue. The law in Canada tells motorists in such a situation to pull to the closest curb, which opens up the center for said vehicle.
Of course, it would also help if Boston EMS and Boston Fire didn't insist on purchasing insanely wide vehicles for urban use; this isn't a planned city where the roads are nice and wide and every thoroughfare has 3-4 feet of extra pavement on the right side. Look at the emergency vehicles in Europe- they're narrow, and it's for a damn good reason. Remember that BS a year or two ago where Boston FD couldn't get to a fire because they didn't have enough room to negotiate the turn with their too-wide truck?
Hey listen, Brett.
This:
is exactly the point I was trying to drive home. Think before you rip somebody a new one. Thanks.
Hey listen...
...you did a pretty poor job, and that's Not My Problem.
I disagree with you, Brett.
The bottom line is: The minute one sees those red or blue beacons flashing, they're supposed to get right the hell out of the way. Period.
Required reading before lectures
Perhaps you should read the comments before saying "read the article" and "none of you" then. I fully understood what situation this was addressing. I made it pretty clear that I was talking about a stationary emergency and a moving vehicle. This is reflected in the headline.
My friend had to wait to retake her test because she didn't change lanes or slow down when she encountered the roadside emergency. This was the law as I was taught it nearly 30 years ago, and I'm shocked that all the pensions paid to widows of police officers mowed down while helping stopped motorists (I can name at least three who are conneceted to my life) hadn't resulted in actual legal guidance.
Maybe it's not clear
Only one response here seems to be on point as to what this new law is going to be about.
This is for when an officer has someone already pulled over to the shoulder, NOT when the cop is driving somewhere. The latter already has a law, as you all point out. This is saying that if you are driving in the right hand lane and there's an officer on the shoulder with his light bar on, you must give way to him and slow down as you pass.
This is one of those "legislate common sense" moments, but evidently people keep injuring or scaring cops out of their cars on the sides of the road...so they finally got it defined as an offense in the rulebook that you can't maintain your speed and use the whole lane as you pass an officer stopped on the roadside.
But seriously, unless this is a sting (cop on side with lights on but not actually doing anything special) or they use this as an enhancement to something like you hitting the officer's car, I doubt anyone who ignores this new rule will ever get a ticket for it alone (the whole reason for this rule is that the officer is already busy...so he's not going to drop everything just to get you for not braking or moving over a bit, etc).