BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: SB 240
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: Wright
VERSION: 3/31/09
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: March 31, 2009
SUBJECT:
Move over law: Department of Transportation (Caltrans) vehicles
DESCRIPTION:
This bill makes permanent the "move over" law, which prescribes
until 2010 actions that drivers must take on a freeway when
passing a stopped emergency vehicle or tow truck with its
warning lights flashing. This bill also adds Caltrans'
vehicles, under specified conditions, to the move over law.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law requires the driver of a vehicle, upon the
immediate approach of an emergency vehicle that is sounding a
siren and has at least one lighted lamp exhibiting red light, as
specified, to yield the right-of-way and immediately drive to
the right-hand edge or curb of the highway that is clear of an
intersection, stop, and remain stopped until the authorized
emergency vehicle has passed, except as otherwise directed by a
traffic officer.
SB 1610 (Simitian), Chapter 375, Statutes of 2006, which
established the "move over" law, requires that until January 1,
2010 a person driving a vehicle on a freeway that is approaching
a stationary emergency vehicle displaying its emergency lights
or a stationary tow truck displaying its flashing amber warning
lights to approach with due caution and proceed to do one of the
following:
(a) Make a lane change into an available lane not immediately
adjacent to the authorized emergency vehicle or tow truck with
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due regard for safety and traffic conditions, if practicable
and not prohibited by law; or
(b) If the maneuver described in (a) would be unsafe or
impracticable, slow to a reasonable and prudent speed that is
safe for existing weather, road, and vehicular or pedestrian
traffic conditions.
Violation of this provision is punishable by a base fine of not
more than $50.
SB 1610 also provides that until January 1, 2010, a tow truck
shall not display flashing amber warning lamps on a freeway
except when "an unusual traffic hazard or extreme hazard
exists."
SB 1610 required the California Highway Patrol (CHP) to report
to the Legislature by January 1, 2009 on the law's effect on the
safety of emergency responders and on the motoring public.
This bill :
1.Makes permanent the move over provisions of SB 1610, which
prescribe until January 1, 2010 actions that drivers must take
on a freeway when passing a stopped emergency vehicle or tow
truck with its warning lights flashing.
2.Adds marked Caltrans' vehicles displaying flashing amber
warning lights to the move over law.
3.Permits Caltrans' vehicles to display flashing amber warning
lights on a freeway only when an unusual traffic hazard or
extreme hazard exists.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . Since 1924, a total of 171 Caltrans' workers have
been killed while working on the state's highways. Caltrans'
maintenance workers who repair potholes and remove dangerous
debris from the roads are put at risk every day due to unsafe
behavior by motorists. The author introduced this bill to
create a safety buffer between a Caltrans' vehicle that is
stopped on or beside a freeway and vehicles on that freeway.
2.Previous legislation . Last year, AB 290 (De Leon) would have
applied until 2010 the move over law to drivers passing a
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marked Caltrans' vehicle stopped on a freeway with its amber
warning lights flashing. The Governor vetoed that bill. His
veto message in part stated:
?this bill contains a provision that would inappropriately
restrict the use of amber warning lights by Caltrans
workers in a manner that contradicts the department's
official policy, its maintenance manual, and which if
followed, could actually increase
the danger to those employees by prohibiting them from
using the lights in situations where doing so would be the
safest course of action. In addition, this bill could
significantly increase the department's exposure to tort
liability by defining every instance where amber warning
lights are used as, implicitly, an unusual or
extreme hazard.
It is troubling to me that I cannot sign this bill at this
time. However, next year, the original legislation
requiring motorists to move over for tow-trucks and
authorized emergency vehicles is due to sunset. By
January 1, 2009, the California Highway Patrol is required
to prepare a report assessing the impacts of this law and
recommending whether or not it should be extended.
Pending this report, should the Legislature choose to seek
extension of the move-over law next year, I urge that
Caltrans employees be included in a manner that provides
safety for the employees and the motoring public.
3.CHP Report . Earlier this year, the CHP issued its report
required under SB 1610 and concluded that "there is no
absolute measurement to determine what impact SB 1610 has had
on increasing the safety of emergency personnel and/or the
motoring public. However, despite the one-year data
comparison, the new laws appear to have had a positive effect
by reducing collisions and injuries involving stopped
emergency vehicles and tow trucks."
CHP drew this conclusion by comparing accident data for 2006,
before SB 1610 took effect, and for 2007, the first year it
was in effect. CHP's accident data, however, does not always
differentiate between freeways and highways, nor does it
record whether a vehicle's emergency lights were displayed.
Finally, SB 1610 also enacted a provision, which will not
sunset, that made it illegal to operate a vehicle in an unsafe
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manner within an emergency incident zone, which state law
defines as an area within 500 feet and in the same direction
of travel as a stopped emergency vehicle that has its
emergency lights activated. CHP is unable to separate the
effect of this provision from the move over law in determining
the decrease in accidents.
CHP reports issuing 106 citations over two years for
violations of the move over law. This is a very low number,
given that casual observation suggests the law is not widely
observed. CHP notes in its report in explanation of this low
number that officers on the scene of an incident are busy with
that incident and therefore not able to leave the scene to
issue citations. CHP further indicates in its report that it
is planning a driver education campaign about the move over
law, including working with the Department of Motor Vehicles
(DMV) to include information about the law in the DMV
handbook.
4.Caltrans policy on warning lights . Excessive use of warning
lights reduces the effectiveness of the lights and increases
the instances under which the move over law is triggered.
Under what circumstances highway or bridge authority vehicles,
including those belonging to Caltrans, may use their flashing
lights is prescribed in statute as well as agency policies,
and different agencies have different policies on the use of
their vehicles' flashing lights. State law permits highway
maintenance vehicles to display their flashing lights "when
parked or working on the highway." While Caltrans has adopted
a policy stating that amber lights are not to be used when no
danger to the employee or motorist exists, this committee last
year requested an amendment to AB 290, that the author
accepted, to conform to the requirement in the existing move
over law that permits tow trucks to display their amber
warning lights only when "an unusual traffic hazard or extreme
hazard exists." This was to guard against triggering the move
over law in situations where a Caltrans' vehicle is simply
parked adjacent to the freeway. This bill contains that same
language ensuring in statute that Caltrans' vehicles display
their amber warning lights on a freeway only when a traffic
hazard exists.
RELATED LEGISLATION
SB 159 (Simitian) repeals the January 1, 2010 sunset date on the
move over law thereby making permanent the requirement that
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drivers move over or slow down when passing a stopped emergency
vehicle displaying its emergency lights or tow truck that is
displaying its warning lights because of an unusual traffic
hazard or an extreme hazard. Status: Passed this committee by a
9 to 2 vote on March 31, 2009.
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
April 8, 2009)
SUPPORT: The California-Nevada Conference of Operating
Engineers (sponsor)
AAA of Northern California
Automobile Club of Southern California
Professional Engineers in California Government
OPPOSED: None received.