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Starting Wednesday, March 27, New York’s Move Over Law, which was originally adopted to prevent collisions with emergency vehicles, will be expanded to include all vehicles stopped on highways, Hochul announced.
“The safety of all New Yorkers is my top priority, especially those pulled over to the side of the road,” she said.
Under the expanded version of the law, drivers who see any type of vehicle stopped on either shoulder of a road will be required to:
- Change into a lane not immediately adjacent to the stopped car; or
- Slow down to a reasonable speed (if unable to change lanes)
The law first went into effect in 2010 and applied to emergency vehicles; throughout the years, it has been expanded to include hazard vehicles, tow trucks, and the like.
Now, the expanded version of the law is aimed to reduce the number of people killed while pulled over.
According to the Governor’s Office, 37 people were killed in New York while standing outside of a disabled vehicle from 2016 to 2020. Nationally, almost 300 people die the same way every year.
“The expansion of New York’s Move Over Law to include disabled and stopped vehicles in the roadway is critical to achieving the goal of eliminating fatalities on the roadways,” said Department of Transportation Commissioner Marie Therese Dominguez.
She continued that the law will “fundamentally save lives by putting safety first.”
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