State Trooper Brandon Kesler was working on the coast some time ago when he pulled over a driver, and because the shoulders in the area were so narrow, he had to approach the vehicle from the driver’s side.
Then a pickup with a camper trailer came barreling down the road from behind — and right next to him.
“He didn’t slow down or move over, and he was about 4 inches from his trailer hitting me,” he said. “That’s my close call.”
The highway is a dangerous place to work, and plenty of other troopers have had close calls of their own, or worse: According to the Washington State Patrol, 212 of the agency’s vehicles were struck during traffic stops between 2007 and 2014, and multiple troopers and citizens have been hurt when passing cars hit them or an emergency vehicle parked to provide assistance.
From Tuesday through Friday, troopers statewide will conduct specific emphasis patrols focused on reminding motorists of the state’s move-over law, first passed in 2007 to protect emergency personnel.
The move-over law requires drivers approaching law enforcement, fire, medical or towing vehicles stopped on the side of the road for emergencies to get into another lane, away from the emergency.
If there’s no safe way to change lanes, drivers need to slow down.
“It could be a collision, it could be a disabled car or traffic stop, or whatever the hazard is,” Kesler said. “We’re looking for the violation of who’s not moving over, who’s not slowing down.”
For this week’s emphasis patrols, troopers won’t be pulled over with lights flashing to wait for people to break the law, he said. They’ll likely work in groups or pairs, with troopers in patrol vehicles watching each other’s traffic stops.
Kesler was on the road in an unmarked car Friday afternoon, watching for vehicles that weren’t moving over or slowing down while another trooper pulled over other traffic violators.
The trooper was talking to a driver he’d pulled over for speeding when a red pickup passed the traffic stop without changing lanes or slowing down.
The driver in the red pickup wasn’t surprised to be pulled over, Kesler said, but acknowledged he had room to move to another lane.
As Kesler entered information about the stop into his patrol car’s computer, he pointed to the cars whizzing by in the far lane, adjacent to where he was parked on the shoulder.
“Some people don’t know,” Kesler said.
The fine for not slowing down or moving over for stopped emergency vehicles is $248. Kessler said fines for other offenses double around those vehicles: The area 200 feet in front of and behind the stopped vehicles essentially becomes a work zone.
Ultimately, Kesler gave the pickup driver a warning.
“He was unaware of the law, but he was aware of what he did wrong,” he said.
The goal is to use the least amount of enforcement to get the most compliance, he said. Now, one hopes, that driver knows better.
The state patrol said troopers wrote tickets for more than 4,000 move-over law violations in 2014.
“But not every violator is stopped. So how many times do I stop a car, and I’m on the shoulder, and I’m dealing with the violator that I have ahead of me …” he paused and motioned outside of his patrol car.
“I mean, how many people didn’t move over for us?”
Kesler said he’s been at crash scenes awaiting tows and seen vehicles spin and out and crash just past him, or vehicles passing by lose wheels and send them into the back of his stopped patrol car.
“I can’t go out and stop every one of them,” he said. “Four thousand stops, yes, that’s a considerable amount of traffic stops, but how many more violations were committed but never stopped?”
