Move-over Laws and Incident Response Personnel Safety in the USA

Abstract

As the number of motor vehicles on roads in the United States of America continues to grow, there is an increasing risk for all road users to be involved in a traffic incident. Although congestion and traveller delay are common traffic incidents, workplace-related injury or fatality among incident response personnel are a serious problem. The injuries may be alleviated with the help of effective laws about incident response personnel safety standards, including state move-over laws. This paper provides an overview, as of July 2024, of existing incident response personnel (“move-over”) laws for all fifty states. This study finds that there is a great variation in such laws among states, which may lead to challenges with comprehension and compliance. States that offer the least amount of protection to their incident response personnel were identified. Recommendations are provided on specific elements of the legislation to offer greater protection to the incident response personnel while working on the side of the roads. The nuances and the variation in move-over laws can make it difficult for drivers to understand what the law requires of them. The findings of this paper will be of interest to researchers, stakeholders, and policymakers working in the field of transportation and occupational safety.