By
the Kansas Highway Patrol
Three
feet - that’s all the distance there is between your car and the one next to
you as you travel down the highway. That
doesn’t leave you much room to react, and driving while distracted shortens
your reaction time even more.
One
distraction is all it took.
On
March 25, 2014, Kansas Highway Patrol Master Trooper Da’Von Brame was pulled
over along I-35 doing a Commercial Vehicle Safety Alliance inspection on a
truck. He was sitting in his patrol car when it was rear-ended by a pickup
travelling at 67 mph. The impact from
the vehicle pushed his vehicle into the truck he was inspecting.
The
driver of the pickup never hit his brakes and was cited for failing to maintain
his lane of travel.
Trooper
Brame spent four days in the hospital and six weeks in physical therapy from
the injuries he sustained in the collision.
He is currently back to work on the road.
The informational card above was created by the KHP. One side shows how close a
Trooper can be to traffic and the other shows the crashed vehicle Trooper Brame
was sitting in.
Move
over for law enforcement and highway workers.
As an employee of the Kansas Department of Transportation this law also helps to protect our workers as they undertake maintenance and construction of the Kansas highway system. We hope drivers will "move over or slow down when flashing lights are visible"
ReplyDeleteEven for a disabled or stopped civilian vehicle, I always move over - you never know when that person will dart into traffic, exit the vehicle unexpectedly or something. Any stopped vehicle warrants giving them a lane, but ESPECIALLY for emergency or maintenance personnel who have to work alongside the highway.
ReplyDelete'Move Over' is such an important message. Yes, it's the law to move over for emergency and roadway workers, but people should move over for anyone pulled off the road. It's a courteous action that can save lives.
ReplyDeleteIt's scary to think of cars traveling by at 75 mph so close to a person. And it's really scary to see that car Trooper Brame was in - so glad he is ok.
ReplyDeleteOne only needs to spend a couple hours on a KDOT road project to have little doubt that 1 in 10 drivers are chemicaly (legaly or illegaly) impaired and 4 in 10 are not paying attention. Driving from your home to work is, statisticaly, more likely to kill you than going to the moon and back.
ReplyDeleteA ticket for failure to maintain his lane was not enough, as a Kdot employee our lives are also put at risk, and these little fines are not enought to wake people up and pay attention to thier driving.
ReplyDeleteThe fine for not moving over is insignificant compared to the risk for the life of a trooper, KDOT maintenance/construction person or emergency worker doing their job on the side of a road. Maybe instead of a fine, the persons caught not moving over should be made to work on the side of a road for the workers (if injured) they passed - OR due something more practical by increasing fines to make them really significant and placed in an injured worker's fund.
ReplyDelete