Recent headlines on television, newspapers and radio have focused on the number of collisions that occur between moving vehicles and police cruisers that are pulled off to the sides of highways.
In fact, Houston just finished a week long campaign aimed at educating the general population about the recently enacted 'move over or slow down' law which calls for drivers to do just that in the presence of police vehicles pulled off to the side of the road.
The interesting thing is this isn't a new law at all - but one that was passed in 2003! It states that "when a driver sees a police car pulled over to the side of the road with its siren lights on you are legally obligated to either move over one lane or slow down 20 miles per hour below the speed limit".
It would seem that either drivers are unaware of this law or simply wantonly disregarding it because last year alone no less than 26 crashes occurred between highway drivers and police cars and four officers and four drivers in all sustained injuries that sent them to the hospital.
Statistics show that the year before that there were 19 crashes and 3 injuries. At least one third of these collisions involved drunk drivers (truly the bane of our existence!)!
Of course, as with any driving infraction - a disregard for the law comes with legal consequences. Fines range anywhere from $200 to $500 dollars.
One more thing for a Texas driver to be aware of to drive safe and within the law. It is important for us to follow this law to protect those who work so hard to protect us.
I also would like to take this opportunity to plug the Houston 100 Club which is a great organization and provides benefits to families of area officers who are killed in the line of duty.
I am a life member of the Houston 100 club and urge all of you to donate what you can to this worthy organization. Contact the 100 Club at (713) 952-0100 or see them on line at http://www.the100club.org.
Greg Baumgartner is a Houston 18 wheeler accident lawyer and the founder of the Baumgartner Law Firm which is focused on helping people who have been injured in an 18 wheeler accident in Texas.
