Debra Laudenslager talks to reporters at a press conference outside the Exeter Township Police Department on Thursday to highlight Pennsylvania’s Move Over Law. Her son, Tyler, was stuck and killed by a vehicle while on a roadside assistance call as a tow truck operator in Berks County in 2020. (STEVEN HENSHAW-READING EAGLE)
While more drivers seem to be aware of Pennsylvania’s Move Over law, compliance is uneven, Exeter police Lt. Sean Fullerton said Thursday.
He notices more drivers shifting into the next lane as they approach a police vehicle along the side of the road with its emergency lights flashing.
Not everyone is getting the message that drivers should move over for all roadside emergencies — not just those involving police cars, firetrucks and ambulances.
“We don’t see an increase in moving over for two truck drivers,” Fullerton said.
That was on display Thursday morning on Route 422 eastbound in Exeter as part of a high-visibility enforcement/education initiative to expand awareness of the state’s Move Over Law.
STEVEN HENSHAW-READING EAGLE
Lt. Sean Fullerton speaks to reporters Thursday at a press conference outside the Exeter Township Police Department to highlight Pennsylvania’s Move Over Law. (STEVEN HENSHAW-READING EAGLE)
As part of the effort in conjunction with PennDOT and the Highway Safety Network, a tow truck with a car hitched to the back was planted just past the Mount Penn exit.
An officer in a police car would radio descriptions of the vehicles that didn’t move over when a lane was available. Other officers were positioned in patrol vehicles near the merge with Business Route 422 to stop the violators.
All of those who failed to move over had either ignored or not observed a large, raspberry-colored temporary sign erected a mile or so ahead of the staged roadside emergency. The sign proclaimed, “Move Over It’s the Law.”
The Move Over Law requires drivers who are able to safely do so to merge into a lane farther away from the response area to provide a safety cushion between moving vehicles and workers such as police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians.
Across the U.S., 27 roadside responders —13 of them tow truck drivers — have been fatally struck this year while on the scene of an emergency, said Todd Leiss of the Emergency Responder Safety Institute, an all-volunteer organization that tracks such deaths.
If Debra Laudenslager were given the opportunity to talk to the drivers who were pulled over for not moving over for the tow truck along Route 422, her message would be simple and from the heart.
“Just to tell them our story,” she told reporters outside the Exeter police station. “They should realize there’s real people behind these tragedies, and the tragedy just doesn’t stop for a day, a month, a week. It’s every new holiday, every milestone that my granddaughter may be going through.”
Laudenslager’s son Tyler, 29, of Halifax, Dauphin County, was on a roadside assistance call as a tow-truck operator on Interstate 78 in Bethel Township on July 21, 2020, when he was struck and killed by a vehicle.
Tyler Laudenslager, who was a volunteer firefighter, left behind a wife and their 10-month-old daughter. His death helped spark legislation to increase penalties for drivers who do not pull into a different lane at an emergency response area.
The driver of the striking vehicle was sentenced by a Berks County judge to two to seven years in state prison under a plea deal.
Debra honors her son by going to public gatherings to spread this message to drivers: keep alert, slow down and move over whenever you see a roadside emergency ahead. She implores drivers to keep their eyes on what’s in front of their vehicles instead of gawking at the flashing lights as they pass by emergency scenes.
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