SARASOTA, Fla. (SNN TV) — Florida’s Move Over law, first enacted in 2002, got a major expansion in 2024.
It’s the law that required you to shift over one lane for any stopped law enforcement, emergency, sanitation, and utility service vehicles, tow trucks or wreckers, and maintenance or construction vehicles with displayed warning lights.
But last July, Governor Ron DeSantis signed a law passed by the state legislature which expanded the law to any stopped vehicle that:
- is displaying warning lights or hazard lights,
- is using emergency flares or posting emergency signs,
- has one or more persons are visibly present.
The American Automobile Association (AAA) campaigned for the expansion.
“AAA is very happy to have this law go into effect because the Move Over law not only protects our roadside technicians but also everyday drivers,” said Mark Jenkins, a AAA spokesman.
To comply with the law, you now have to move out of the lane closest to the disabled vehicle when on a highway or a street with at least two lanes. If you can’t safely move over, you have to slow to 20 mph less than the posted speed limit, or down to 5 mph if the speed limit is 20 mph or less.
“Every year, hundreds of people are killed on the road sides because drivers aren’t paying attention,” Jenkins said. “They’re looking at their phone, they’re talking to their passenger in the vehicle with them and they don’t see that there’s a vehicle on the roadside that they’re approaching.”
According to Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, there were 191 crashes and more than 14,000 citations issued for drivers who failed to move over in 2021.
“Sometimes a few feet, a few inches, can be the difference between life and death,” said Jenkins.
If a driver breaks that law, it’s a noncriminal traffic infraction. The fine is $60, but with fees and surcharges, it could total up to $158.
