RICHMOND, Va. (WRIC) — When Henrico local Henry Wright was on his way to work on Wednesday, he had to pull over on I-95 South in Petersburg because of a flat tire.
Wright turned his car’s hazard lights on as he stepped out of the vehicle, and felt the strong gust of wind from other drivers him due to drivers not moving lanes, making him feel unsafe.
“There was a lot of speed and wind,” said Wright, “You know, it was pushing me back a little bit.”
But that didn’t stop Wright from pulling out his phone and pressing the video record button.
“I was very fearful, it’s a thin line between life and death, especially on 95,” said Wright.
The change to Virginia’s “Move Over” Law requires drivers to slow down or switch lanes when passing stopped vehicles with hazards on — vehicles like Wright’s and many others.
He began filming after remembering the tragic killings of Andy Starmer and Angela Hurley, whose deaths both inspired road safety laws in Virginia.
Starmer was a tow truck driver who was hit while helping a stranded driver on I-64 in Newport News in 2009. His death sparked the “Move Over” Law.
In 2022, Hurley was hit and killed while she was in her disabled car on the side of I-95 in Hanover County. Her death triggered the latest change to the law which requires drivers to move over for all vehicles, rather than just emergency vehicles with hazard lights and other indications of caution.
Ten minutes after Wright pulled over, his cousin and VDOT employees arrived and replaced his tire with a donut.
Even with three cars by the side of the road with their hazards turned on, drivers and trucks on the road still chose not to change lanes.
Wright works as a traffic control flagger in Central Virginia. He said drivers need to be more careful and be on the lookout for parked cars on the side of all roads.
“And you have a choice,” he said. “For those that don’t know, now you know.”
The Chesterfield Police Department said officials have only written four “failure-to-yield” driving citations in total.
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