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The Move Over Law: What Every State Requires

Every state has a Move Over law: when an emergency or tow vehicle is stopped with lights flashing, move over a lane or slow down. What it covers.

· 3 min read

Every state has a Move Over law. When a police car, ambulance, fire truck or tow truck is stopped on the side of the road with its lights flashing, you must move over one lane away from it if you safely can, or slow down if you can't.

The law exists because people working at the roadside are hit by passing traffic every year. The few feet of an extra lane are what keep them alive.

What to do, step by step

  1. Spot the flashing lights early. On a highway they can be a quarter mile ahead.
  2. Check your mirror and blind spot, signal, and move into the lane farther away when it's clear.
  3. If you can't change lanes safely, slow down well below the speed limit as you pass.
  4. Don't stop in the travel lane. Keep moving at a safe speed.
  5. Move back when you are well past.
Never swerve into another lane without looking. The Move Over law never requires an unsafe lane change; that's why "slow down" is part of it.

Which vehicles it covers

All states cover police, fire and ambulances. Most also cover tow trucks, and many now include road maintenance crews, utility trucks and, in some states, any vehicle stopped with its hazard lights on. How much you must slow down differs too. Some states name a speed; others say "a safe speed".

The vehicles covered and the required speed differ by state. Check your state's driver handbook.

Why so many states added it

Roadside workers, police officers, tow truck drivers and people changing a tire are hit by passing traffic every year, often by drivers who were not paying attention or did not realize how close they were. A lane of space turns a near miss at highway speed into nothing at all. That is why every state now has a version of the law, and why many have widened it over the years to include more kinds of vehicles.

If you are the one stopped at the roadside, the same idea protects you: pull as far off the road as you can, turn on your hazard lights and stay in the car with your seat belt on if it is safer than standing next to traffic.

Move over vs pull over

Don't confuse the two. Move over is for a vehicle that is already stopped at the roadside. When an emergency vehicle is coming up behind you with its siren on, the rule is different: pull to the right edge of the road and stop until it passes.

Practice it

On the Sirens road of Road Sign Adventure, a police car is parked on the shoulder with its lights flashing. Move over or slow down, or you lose a license point.

Drive the Sirens roads in Road Sign AdventureStart ›

The rule and its sources are on rules of the road.

Questions people ask

Is the Move Over law the same in every state?

Every state has one, but which vehicles it covers and how much you must slow down differ.

What if I can't change lanes?

Slow down as you pass. The law never requires an unsafe lane change.

Does Move Over apply to tow trucks?

In most states, yes. Many states also include road crews and utility vehicles.

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