Touch-A-Truck encourages highway traffic safety
LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) — Highway drivers occasionally experience a situation where a vehicle is pulled on the side of the road.
United States law in all 50 states requires drivers to pull into an adjacent lane due to safety concerns.
Yet despite the law being in all states, traffic stop deaths have topped 300 in recent years.
“From 2016 to 2020, on the national scale, 350 people were killed in roadside accidents,” said American Automobile Association’s Brian Ortner. “That means they were on the side of the road working on the vehicle or were first responders, or emergency roadside service responders.”
Ortner said in that time frame, Nebraska had eight fatalities on the road, but the data doesn’t count injuries.
To help promote highway safety AAA held a Touch-a-Truck event, welcoming young and old alike.
Families received hazard vests that had the law’s common name, “slow down, pull over” displayed on the back.
They could then walk around and experience the inside of rescue vehicles like Sheriff’s cruisers, police motorcycles and tow trucks.
Ortner said this allows families to get into the mindset of what the risks for these workers are.
“We need to protect those folks who are working for us every day,” he said. “Though we want people to know that this [law] should be for anybody.”
In Nebraska, the law, which comes from Nebraska Revised Statute 60-6,378 (b), only covers law enforcement and rescue workers, but not civilians themselves.
“The driver of the vehicle shall proceed with due care and caution and yield the right-of-way by moving into a lane at least one moving lane apart from the stopped authorized emergency vehicle or road assistance vehicle unless directed otherwise by a peace officer or other authorized emergency personnel.”
Ortner said, the event should encourage people to “put themselves in that situation.”
“Put yourself in that position, if you were on the side of the road, you would think to yourself, move over for me,” he said.
To further promote the law in Nebraska, a statewide “Slow Down, Move Over,” day will be held on October 15.
