Police: move over law is ignored too often by drivers

People who don't move over for emergency scenes remain a huge problem despite the law against it.

Growing concern among local police over drivers ignoring the sights and sounds from flashing sirens.

It can cause crashes and get people hurt, and now one local department is doing something about it.

"My son was killed a year ago from distracted driving," says Fred Scroggs in a new police video.

The father of a tow truck driver Freddy Scroggs, Jr.  who was killed while on the job last October, l says drivers still aren't paying attention.

"You have to move over a lane for an emergency vehicle responding," said Sgt. Robert Wilke said.

That law, as many may not be aware, also applies to tow truck drivers and pretty much any vehicle with flashing lights activated.

"If you can't get over a lane, you have to slow down," Wilke said.

With the help of the Westland Police Department, a video of a sting operation was made to illustrate how widespread the problem is.

"A semi blew past me," said Josh Wiitanen, a driver for Westland Car Care in the police video. "It came half a foot from me and blew my hat off. People have to pay attention we all have families we want to get home to.

"We wanted to make sure that people were aware of the law so that it wouldn't happen again."

A tow truck pulled over served as the decoy and officers got in place. Cars that didn't get over, we're pulled over.

"We made 19 stops but there were many more that passed by without merging over," Wilke said.

Each one of those 19 drivers that were pulled over could have been issued a ticket up to $150. Instead they were given this pamphlet an education on what to do next time."

Police tell us this happens far too often.

"We are already responding to an emergency run we can't stop what we're doing to do enforcement on this," Wilke said.

But they're hopeful the more people who see videos like this, the less often the behavior will actually happen.