JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — January is known as Florida’s Move Over Month, and JEA is reminding drivers of the statewide Move Over law. The law requires motorists to change lanes or slow down significantly when approaching any stopped vehicle with flashing lights, including utility trucks, first responder vehicles or roadside service vehicles.
The law aims to protect the lives of roadside workers and first responders. Along with all the other dangers utility workers face in their jobs each day, they also have to watch out for drivers who might hit them while they’re working on the side of a road.
That danger became very real recently for JEA Crew Leader Brandon Barr, who experienced a close call with an impaired driver while working in a residential area.
“We’re working in a residential area, a regular neighborhood, middle of the day, sunny outside, and we had the road closed with multiple detour signs, road closures, barricades. We had a water water wall, which is, like a hard plastic wall where you can fill with water to deter traffic from coming through a zone. It was around one o’clock in the day and we had a guy come and drove through all the signs, he drove through all the barricades, he drove the water wall and then he crashed into one of our large excavators. When it happened, he immediately tried to back up and drive off the scene,” said Barr. “I got in my truck and I followed and I kind of followed him around the block, not sure what the cause was. As I began to follow him, he was running into people’s yards and driving off very erratic but slow so I figured he had a stroke or impaired. I followed him around the other side of the neighborhood where he crashed again to our job site on the other side, crashed into our water wall, almost hit our van. That’s when we got a close-up view and kind of noticed that he was very impaired. I called JSO, I didn’t want him to drive out to the street and actually hit somebody at a high rate of speed or pedestrian. I say all that to say he drove through several indicators that we were doing in the area, all the signs he just drove through it all. Thankfully no one got hurt that day, that guy did get arrested, and oddly enough he was ex JSO,” said Barr.
JEA Public Information Officer Karen McAllister says incidents like this highlight why awareness of the Mover Over Law is critical.
“For us, we want our crew members to et home safely at the end of the day. Safety, of course, is important to us but it’s also the state law. So, we want to remind drivers just how important it is for the safety of our crew members and other first responders that are working alongside the road.”
Under Florida Statute 316.126:
- Move over into an alternate lane when passing a utility truck, but only when it is safe to do so.
- If you cannot change lanes safely, or if you are on a two-lane road, reduce your speed to 20 mph below the posted speed limit.
- Failure to move over could result in fines, court fees and points on your license.
Barr says slowing down for just a few moments can make a life-saving difference.
“A few moments of slowing your route down, it could save them the trouble, it could save the workers an accident, an injury, a death, you know, a few moments paused to get through whatever zone it is or whatever vehicles on the side of the road, it’s not going to kill anybody. Just take a little extra time to pay attention to your surroundings, the lights, the signs and it just will help the whole community out because when we’re in the middle of doing work, you can’t always be looking for vehicles.”