After a week-long educational campaign about the "move over or slow down" law, today officers will start giving out tickets to violators.
If you notice a police car pulled off to the side of the road with its emergency lights on, you’re legally obligated to either move one lane farther away or slow down 20 miles per hour below the speed limit. So if the posted speed limit is 45 and you notice a police unit pulled off the shoulder, you’ve got to slow down to 25 mph.
This isn’t a new law. The State of Texas passed it in 2003, but a recent increase in accidents with pulled-over police cars is one of the reasons for heavy enforcement now.
Last year, it happened 26 times. In 2009, four officers and four drivers were injured when a car crashed with a cop who was pulled over on the side of the road. And in 2008, that happened 19 times and injured two officers and one driver.
Police say drunk driving was involved in about one-third of those crashes.
Break this law and you could be ticketed and fined up to $200. If someone is injured, that violation becomes a Class B misdemeanor offense, which carries a fine of up to $500.
