A car buzzed by, roughly three feet from me.
I had just stepped out of my car, parked on Highway 82’s right shoulder near Columbus.
Donny Barksdale, owner of Champions Towing, was parked a few feet ahead of my car. His tow truck, big, red and adorned with flashing yellow lights, was hard to miss.
“It’s like they just don’t care,” Barksdale said a few moments later, after I’d walked to the front of his truck and strapped on a bright safety vest. Another car zipped by us, despite the open lane to its left.
“They’ll just go on by at 70, 80 mph,” he said, “and it’s like you’re not even there.”
I only had to spend a few minutes on the side of the road to see the point that Barksdale wanted to convey when he invited me out. As we watched from the side of the road — my car behind his as though setting up for a tow — most drivers came by after pulled over to the left lane. The drivers who could not pull over at least slowed down.
But every few seconds, a car came zooming along in the right lane without slowing or moving over. They didn’t seem particularly bothered by the cars, or the two peoples standing near the side of the road.
That, Barksdale says, is a problem.
“It really just amazes me,” he said.
Troy Lee, a driver with Bulldog Towing in Starkville, also experiences issues with motorists not moving over. He said the issue is less common on Starkville’s side roads, but a major issue on the main arteries, such as Highways 12 and 182.
“It’s a very dangerous thing when you’re on the highway trying to hook up a vehicle and no one will move over,” Lee said. “We’ve got our caution lights on, our vests on and people are still more concerned with themselves than your safety.”
Lee said the company puts out orange cones to give drivers advance warning at the site of certain wrecks, but even that doesn’t seem to help.
“As soon as they see the cones they move over and move right back over in that lane again like those cones weren’t even there,” he said. “It’s a terrible thing.”
Barksdale said: “If you have the opportunity to move over, move over. Not only am I married and have kids — we get up just like everybody else and go to work and we want to be safe.”
For Barksdale, the problem is bad enough that he sometimes records drivers passing by while he’s at a tow site. What he found out by doing it is that drivers who don’t move over are often distracted by things such as looking on the phone.
Rubberneckers can also cause problems. Barksdale said one wreck led to another on the highway one morning about a week and a half ago because a driver slowed down to try to see what was happening.
“We know everybody is trying to slow down and we know people are trying to look and see who it is or what happened,” Barksdale said. “The smartest thing is that you come up on (a wreck), slow down, be very cautious and just watch for everybody.”
So far, no Champions Towing drivers have been injured due to motorists not moving over. Barksdale said the side mirror of a passing car caught one the vest of one of his drivers a few years ago. However, the Velcro vest pulled apart, rather than dragging the driver along.
Still, he said the issue is a problem across the country, and he doesn’t want towers to be injured because motorists won’t move over or aren’t paying attention.
“I’m on these wrecker sites on Facebook and I see where tow drivers are getting hit and killed every day,” he said. “It’s because people are not paying attention.”
State law
Mississippi Highway Patrol Trooper 1st Class Greg Bell is no stranger to motorists who don’t move over.
“I’ve almost been struck by a vehicle that didn’t move over,” he said. “Once I made contact with the vehicle, I discovered the driver was impaired, which made sense for why he didn’t move over.”
A state law that took effect in 2007 requires that drivers who approach a stationary emergency vehicle on a multi-lane highway move over to a non-adjacent if the highway has at least two lanes going in the same direction. Failing that, the law requires that drivers slow down and be prepared to stop.
The law also applies to recovery vehicles such as towing trucks, utility service vehicles, sanitation vehicles and highway maintenance vehicles.
Though the law has been in effect for nearly a decade, Bell said it’s something officers have to deal with regularly. Bell said MHP puts heavy emphasis on the move over law, especially because it’s a matter of officer safety.
“This is something that we are forced to enforce every single day,” Bell said. “Just for drivers being distracted when they’re coming by or looking at their phones.”
Violating the move over law is a misdemeanor and carries a fine of up to $250, or up to $1,000 if failure to follow the law leads to damage to a protected vehicle or injury for a driver or passenger in the vehicle.
Bell said he thinks drivers should move over regardless of the type of vehicle on the side of the road.
“In my opinion, if there’s a vehicle on the side of the road that has any kind of a flashing lights — whether it’s amber, red, blue, green or what have you — you should yield if it’s safe to do so over to the opposite lane just to give them that little cushion of safety,” he said. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s a garbage truck or a law enforcement vehicle.”
Alex Holloway was formerly a reporter with The Dispatch.
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