Characterizing Incident Responder Crashes Involving Move Over Law Violations

Abstract

This research sought to understand secondary crashes involving incident responders in which a citation was issued for violation of Florida’s Move Over Law. From 2011 to 2020, there were 519 crashes involving a Move Over Law citation, for which the circumstances of the crashes had required a driver to slow or change lanes because of a stopped responder vehicle. The majority occurred during times other than daylight, and driver distraction and alcohol were notably present in the data. Alcohol increased crash and injury severity and the likelihood of injury. Law enforcement traffic stops were the most common precipitating activity, followed by previous crashes and vehicle disablements. Over two-thirds of crashes involved a law enforcement vehicle, the remainder comprised other responder vehicle types. A distribution of posted speed limits showed that more than half of move over violation crashes occurred on roadways with a posted speed of 45 mph or less. In 41 crashes, a pedestrian was struck, including 32 involving incident responders. In responder struck-by crashes, law enforcement officers, lack of high-visibility safety apparel, and operating on the traffic side of incident scenes were prominent. Local roadways comprised a significant number of struck-by crashes, but higher-speed roadways were more dangerous for towing operators and had higher incidence of serious injuries. The move over violation approach to filtering crash data for responder-involved incidents was valid, however, not every crash involving a responder resulted in a move over citation, so the approach was more representative of the responder-involved crash type than comprehensive.