Yield to emergency vehicles or get pulled over

Jefferson City police will be on the lookout this week for drivers who don’t yield to emergency vehicles.

ABC 17 news first brought the public safety alert to you in a 2015 special report. ABC 17 News crews showed you some of the dangers of failure to yield during our ride-along with firefighters in Columbia.

The Jefferson City Police Department says there will likely be an increase of emergency vehicles this week for the Memorial Day holiday approaching.

In 2011, the latest year available on the Missouri State Highway Patrol’s website, there were more than 1,400 crashes involving emergency service vehicles in the state. In those crashes, five people were killed and nearly 300 others were hurt.

Sgt. Doug Ruediger with the Jefferson City Police Department said it is important to move over for emergency vehicles to ensure the safety of the emergency workers as well as citizens.

“It just takes a split second for you to take your eyes off the road and for you to veer over that, off the lane of traffic and strike an officer, a fireman an ambulance, just a citizen, a stranded motorist,” Ruediger said. “So the dangers are people getting seriously injured and killed.”

Ruediger said drivers must pull over not only for law enforcement vehicles, fire trucks and ambulances, but vehicles such as tow trucks, utility vehicles and MoDOT vehicles as well.

Officers said they would not give out warnings to drivers who do not move over for emergency vehicles during the special enforcement period.