On January 1, 2011 a new traffic law took effect in New York State that requires drivers to "move over" if they encounter an emergency vehicle (police, fire, EMS, etc.) parked or stopped on the shoulder or side of a multi-lane "controlled access highway" (this includes interstate highways like I-87 and all of NY's parkways, including the Taconic, Palisades, Northern State, Southern State, etc).
Specifically, the the Ambrose-Searles ‘Move Over Act’ requires drivers in NYS to exercise due care to avoid colliding with an authorized emergency vehicle which is parked, stopped or standing on the shoulder of a road or highway with its emergency lights activated. Drivers must reduce speed on all roads when encountering such vehicles, but on parkways, interstates, and other controlled access highways with multiple lanes, drivers are further required to move from the lane immediately adjacent to the emergency vehicle, unless traffic or other hazards exist to prevent doing so safely. All that sounds fine and everyone wants to see our emergency responders protected as much as possible.
A first time violation of the new law is a "2 point" offense on the New York DMV point system and can result in a fine of as much as $275 (a conviction can also cause a substantial increase in auto insurance rates).
All of that sounds fine and everyone wants to see our emergency responders protected to the greatest extent possible. Unfortunately, police forces across NYS have begun aggressive enforcement strategies that are little more than the "move over" equivalent of a "speed trap." Reports from drivers across the state indicate that police agencies, including the New York State Police, are sending out teams of patrol cars to set up "sting" operations that involve having one police stop on the shoulder of a highway (no emergency involved) put their emergency lights on and wait for driver's to come by, but fail to "move over". Parked a little further down the road is a second police car waiting to wave drivers over and ticket them for violating the "move over."
In some cases, a whole string of cars will be pulled over and ticketed. The unfairness of this is clear, the law was meant to protect emergency workers who were ACTUALLY responding to an emergency. It was not intended to give the police an excuse to set up ticket traps. In addition, by setting up these ticket traps the police are violating the traffic law themselves by using their emergency lights when no emergency exists.
This kind of police operation needs to stop. If an actual emergency exists and a driver violates the "move over" law then the police should enforce it. But, creating a bogus emergency to simply create violations of the law is an abuse of power.
Press reports of the abuse include:
http://www.dailyjournal.net/view/story/72b766ece28a446f9f5e4195ab200435/NY--Move-Over-Law-Tickets/
http://the390.com/downstate/move-over-detail-yields-27-tickets
http://buffalo.ynn.com/content/all_news/540440/move-over-ticket-blitz-begins/
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13 comments:
They have a certain protocols. We should always leave it to them.
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I know this is an old blog but I would like to share my experience anyways.
I was pulled over for passing an emergency vehicle just last week. I was topping a hill just to find an officer on the other side. I was doing 50mph in a posted 50 so speeding wasn't an issue. When I first saw the officer my first reaction was to let off throttle and move over. (remember that the cop was on the back side of a hill so there was little time to react) I quickly began changing lanes but not fully as I passed him. He signaled me to pull over. He clocked me at 45 which is obviously not 20mph under the posted 50 as the law requires so he said I was doing 15mph over and would receive a citation. I told him of the circumstance of being just over the hill with little time to react but he didn't care. I also asked him 'politely' why he was running radar with his lights on with nobody pulled, no 2nd officer, and that it looked like he was deliberately leaving his lights on to find violators of this particular law, and he said it doesn't matter how he does his job, lights were on, I passed him without completely switching lanes or slowing 20mph below posted limit so I was getting a ticket. At this point my temper showed a little and I informed him that I would absolutely fight this in court and told him that his business is very shady as hell. This really pissed him off and he went back to his car. He returned with a citation and marked out the court date and said it was now a warning. I still showed the citation/warning to the local municipal clerk and it was in fact dropped. Don't know if my threat of court mattered or he was just playing mind games but it's complete BS. Oh, and my wife and children were in the car with me as were were on our way to dinner, so I had 3 witnesses. Shady or what?
I know this is an old blog but I would like to share my experience anyways.
I was pulled over for passing an emergency vehicle just last week. I was topping a hill just to find an officer on the other side. I was doing 50mph in a posted 50 so speeding wasn't an issue. When I first saw the officer my first reaction was to let off throttle and move over. (remember that the cop was on the back side of a hill so there was little time to react) I quickly began changing lanes but not fully as I passed him. He signaled me to pull over. He clocked me at 45 which is obviously not 20mph under the posted 50 as the law requires so he said I was doing 15mph over and would receive a citation. I told him of the circumstance of being just over the hill with little time to react but he didn't care. I also asked him 'politely' why he was running radar with his lights on with nobody pulled, no 2nd officer, and that it looked like he was deliberately leaving his lights on to find violators of this particular law, and he said it doesn't matter how he does his job, lights were on, I passed him without completely switching lanes or slowing 20mph below posted limit so I was getting a ticket. At this point my temper showed a little and I informed him that I would absolutely fight this in court and told him that his business is very shady as hell. This really pissed him off and he went back to his car. He returned with a citation and marked out the court date and said it was now a warning. I still showed the citation/warning to the local municipal clerk and it was in fact dropped. Don't know if my threat of court mattered or he was just playing mind games but it's complete BS. Oh, and my wife and children were in the car with me as were were on our way to dinner, so I had 3 witnesses. Shady or what?
I know this is an old blog but I would like to share my experience anyways.
I was pulled over for passing an emergency vehicle just last week. I was topping a hill just to find an officer on the other side. I was doing 50mph in a posted 50 so speeding wasn't an issue. When I first saw the officer my first reaction was to let off throttle and move over. (remember that the cop was on the back side of a hill so there was little time to react) I quickly began changing lanes but not fully as I passed him. He signaled me to pull over. He clocked me at 45 which is obviously not 20mph under the posted 50 as the law requires so he said I was doing 15mph over and would receive a citation. I told him of the circumstance of being just over the hill with little time to react but he didn't care. I also asked him 'politely' why he was running radar with his lights on with nobody pulled, no 2nd officer, and that it looked like he was deliberately leaving his lights on to find violators of this particular law, and he said it doesn't matter how he does his job, lights were on, I passed him without completely switching lanes or slowing 20mph below posted limit so I was getting a ticket. At this point my temper showed a little and I informed him that I would absolutely fight this in court and told him that his business is very shady as hell. This really pissed him off and he went back to his car. He returned with a citation and marked out the court date and said it was now a warning. I still showed the citation/warning to the local municipal clerk and it was in fact dropped. Don't know if my threat of court mattered or he was just playing mind games but it's complete BS. Oh, and my wife and children were in the car with me as were were on our way to dinner, so I had 3 witnesses. Shady or what?
I know this is an old blog but I would like to share my experience anyways.
I was pulled over for passing an emergency vehicle just last week. I was topping a hill just to find an officer on the other side. I was doing 50mph in a posted 50 so speeding wasn't an issue. When I first saw the officer my first reaction was to let off throttle and move over. (remember that the cop was on the back side of a hill so there was little time to react) I quickly began changing lanes but not fully as I passed him. He signaled me to pull over. He clocked me at 45 which is obviously not 20mph under the posted 50 as the law requires so he said I was doing 15mph over and would receive a citation. I told him of the circumstance of being just over the hill with little time to react but he didn't care. I also asked him 'politely' why he was running radar with his lights on with nobody pulled, no 2nd officer, and that it looked like he was deliberately leaving his lights on to find violators of this particular law, and he said it doesn't matter how he does his job, lights were on, I passed him without completely switching lanes or slowing 20mph below posted limit so I was getting a ticket. At this point my temper showed a little and I informed him that I would absolutely fight this in court and told him that his business is very shady as hell. This really pissed him off and he went back to his car. He returned with a citation and marked out the court date and said it was now a warning. I still showed the citation/warning to the local municipal clerk and it was in fact dropped. Don't know if my threat of court mattered or he was just playing mind games but it's complete BS. Oh, and my wife and children were in the car with me as were were on our way to dinner, so I had 3 witnesses. Shady or what?
I know this is an old blog but I would like to share my experience anyways.
I was pulled over for passing an emergency vehicle just last week. I was topping a hill just to find an officer on the other side. I was doing 50mph in a posted 50 so speeding wasn't an issue. When I first saw the officer my first reaction was to let off throttle and move over. (remember that the cop was on the back side of a hill so there was little time to react) I quickly began changing lanes but not fully as I passed him. He signaled me to pull over. He clocked me at 45 which is obviously not 20mph under the posted 50 as the law requires so he said I was doing 15mph over and would receive a citation. I told him of the circumstance of being just over the hill with little time to react but he didn't care. I also asked him 'politely' why he was running radar with his lights on with nobody pulled, no 2nd officer, and that it looked like he was deliberately leaving his lights on to find violators of this particular law, and he said it doesn't matter how he does his job, lights were on, I passed him without completely switching lanes or slowing 20mph below posted limit so I was getting a ticket. At this point my temper showed a little and I informed him that I would absolutely fight this in court and told him that his business is very shady as hell. This really pissed him off and he went back to his car. He returned with a citation and marked out the court date and said it was now a warning. I still showed the citation/warning to the local municipal clerk and it was in fact dropped. Don't know if my threat of court mattered or he was just playing mind games but it's complete BS. Oh, and my wife and children were in the car with me as were were on our way to dinner, so I had 3 witnesses. Shady or what?
I know this is an old blog but I would like to share my experience anyways.
I was pulled over for passing an emergency vehicle just last week. I was topping a hill just to find an officer on the other side. I was doing 50mph in a posted 50 so speeding wasn't an issue. When I first saw the officer my first reaction was to let off throttle and move over. (remember that the cop was on the back side of a hill so there was little time to react) I quickly began changing lanes but not fully as I passed him. He signaled me to pull over. He clocked me at 45 which is obviously not 20mph under the posted 50 as the law requires so he said I was doing 15mph over and would receive a citation. I told him of the circumstance of being just over the hill with little time to react but he didn't care. I also asked him 'politely' why he was running radar with his lights on with nobody pulled, no 2nd officer, and that it looked like he was deliberately leaving his lights on to find violators of this particular law, and he said it doesn't matter how he does his job, lights were on, I passed him without completely switching lanes or slowing 20mph below posted limit so I was getting a ticket. At this point my temper showed a little and I informed him that I would absolutely fight this in court and told him that his business is very shady as hell. This really pissed him off and he went back to his car. He returned with a citation and marked out the court date and said it was now a warning. I still showed the citation/warning to the local municipal clerk and it was in fact dropped. Don't know if my threat of court mattered or he was just playing mind games but it's complete BS. Oh, and my wife and children were in the car with me as were were on our way to dinner, so I had 3 witnesses. Shady or what?
I know this is an old blog but I would like to share my experience anyways.
I was pulled over for passing an emergency vehicle just last week. I was topping a hill just to find an officer on the other side. I was doing 50mph in a posted 50 so speeding wasn't an issue. When I first saw the officer my first reaction was to let off throttle and move over. (remember that the cop was on the back side of a hill so there was little time to react) I quickly began changing lanes but not fully as I passed him. He signaled me to pull over. He clocked me at 45 which is obviously not 20mph under the posted 50 as the law requires so he said I was doing 15mph over and would receive a citation. I told him of the circumstance of being just over the hill with little time to react but he didn't care. I also asked him 'politely' why he was running radar with his lights on with nobody pulled, no 2nd officer, and that it looked like he was deliberately leaving his lights on to find violators of this particular law, and he said it doesn't matter how he does his job, lights were on, I passed him without completely switching lanes or slowing 20mph below posted limit so I was getting a ticket. At this point my temper showed a little and I informed him that I would absolutely fight this in court and told him that his business is very shady as hell. This really pissed him off and he went back to his car. He returned with a citation and marked out the court date and said it was now a warning. I still showed the citation/warning to the local municipal clerk and it was in fact dropped. Don't know if my threat of court mattered or he was just playing mind games but it's complete BS. Oh, and my wife and children were in the car with me as were were on our way to dinner, so I had 3 witnesses. Shady or what?
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