Emergency responders remind drivers to move over

The Federal Highway Administration declared Nov. 13-19, 2017, National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week.

Officials with The Missouri Department of Transportation, the State Highway Patrol and Boone County Fire Department all gathered Thursday morning to remind highway drivers to move over when they see any vehicles with flashing lights on.

Highway safety and traffic engineer Nicole Hood said, “Watch out, slow down and move over for any response vehicle on the road,” adding, “It’s required by state law.”

On average, Hood said there have been more than 5,500 traffic incidents across the state each month. She also said thousands of emergency responders have been injured and some even killed while working those crash scenes.

“In the past ten years, MoDOT alone has had three emergency response employees killed while working incidents,” said Hood.

Captain John Hotz, with the Missouri State Highway Patrol said that when you see a traffic incident, driving at an appropriate speed, and changing lanes when possible is extremely helpful, but more importantly, he said drivers need to pay attention to what’s going on when you are on the road.