Ontario Provincial Police will conduct a long-weekend blitz to crack down on drivers who fail to slow down and move over when they pass emergency vehicles that are stopped on the highway.
The blitz begins on Friday and will run through the civic holiday on Monday.
According to the OPP, there have been a total of 932 charges filed against drivers who failed to move over so far this year.
OPP say that while that number does “set the stage “for a lower total of charges than have been recorded in recent years, it still suggests that “far too many drivers continue to ignore (the law) at the expense of first responder safety.”
“If you talk to any officer out on the road they are going to tell you that it happens every single time that they do a traffic stop,” OPP Sgt. Kerry Schmidt told CP24 on Thursday morning. “Any time you talk to a tow truck driver, a paramedic, a firemen, they are always watching traffic and watching their back because vehicles far too often are zooming by them at a high rate of speed with no regard for the safety of the first responders on the side of the road.”
There were a total of 2,137 charges issued to drivers that failed to move over for emergency vehicles in 2017 and 2,468 charges in 2016.
Schmidt said that the law requires that drivers slow down and move over whenever they observe a emergency vehicle or tow truck stopped on the highway with their lights activated. He said that the penalty for not doing so is a $490 fine and six demerit points.
“We are trying to raise awareness and make sure people understand the rules of the road. A stop sign means you stop but when you see a emergency vehicle with their red or blue lights flashing the law requires you to slow down and if you are in a multi-lane highway to move into an adjacent lane,” he said.
Schmidt said that there were six incidents last year involving drivers that struck OPP vehicles that were stopped on the side of the road with their lights activated.
