Wednesday, January 28, 2009

'Move Over' Law Hopefully In The Future For AZ Tow Truck Operators

Here's the KVOA News 4 story:

Those who work on the side of a highway are always facing constant dangers.
A few years ago the state passed a law which makes drivers switch lanes to give police officers more room. Now they're considering something similar for tow truck drivers and construction workers.

Every day Mike Garcia walks a fine line. It's a white line and is only a few inches wide. But it's the line between life and death. Mike is a tow truck driver who works on the side of the highway.

"You think about your safety. And think about staying out of your lane of traffic, just get what you need done," he says. With traffic whizzing by at 70 miles an hour, too many times it's too close for comfort. "When you feel the mirror hit your back... You think you're done," says Jim Mooney, owner of Frontier Towing.

Up the highway at the statehouse -- later this spring lawmakers will consider a bill to help tow truck
drivers.

Drivers would have to move over and give them more room to work like
you have to already for police officers on the side of the road.

"You can see some of the traffic slows a little bit, but generally it just goes by as quick as it can," Mooney says. AAA Arizona supports the law-- in Phoenix one of their members and a tow truck driver died when a truck hit them. "It's certainly something we don't want to see happen which is why we're advocating
this law," says spokeswoman Yvette Lopez.

Hoping a change in the law will get drivers to change lanes when they're working on that fine line. "The vehicles are so close, sometimes you wonder how close they are before they hit you," Mooney says.

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