A Violation of Scott’s Law Is A Serious Traffic Offense: Fight The Charges

 Posted on July 07, 2016 in Traffic Offenses

Illinois drivers are required to respect and protect emergency workers while driving on roadways. This means acknowledging and respecting an emergency vehicle’s need to get somewhere much faster than your average driver and getting out of the way so that emergency vehicles and personnel can get to where they need to go as quickly as possible. It also means moving over on the highway to give a stationary emergency vehicle as much room as possible.

Codified at 625 ILCS 5/11-907, the law that protects emergency vehicles and emergency personnel is referred to as Scott’s Law, after Scott Gillen, a Chicago Fire Department Lieutenant who was killed by a passing motorist while trying to do his job. The law is necessary because emergency workers face many dangers when responding to accidents and trying to save lives.

Getting To An Emergency

Other drivers on the road are supposed to get out of the way for an emergency vehicle that is using its flashing lights and/or its audio signal. Drivers are supposed to pull over and move out of the way so that an emergency vehicle has a path to maneuver through traffic. A driver that does not get over reasonably can be reported by the emergency vehicle, and the driver could end up with a ticket.

It is possible that the driver was unable to get out of the way quickly, or that it would have been unsafe for the driver to yield the right of way to the emergency vehicle. Perhaps a mechanical failure caused the driver’s car to stall out, and the driver was unable to get out of the way. There may be reasonable defenses for not having yielded to the emergency vehicle, and these reasons or defenses should be raised when fighting the ticket.

Responding To An Emergency

Under Scott’s Law, drivers are also supposed to attempt to get over as far as possible when passing a stationary emergency vehicle on the side of the road. This is to protect the emergency responders. Whether the emergency vehicle is an ambulance, fire truck or police vehicle, when and if possible, other drivers should get over as far as safely possible.

A driver could be issued a ticket if, for example, the driver approached a police vehicle that was stationary on the right-hand side of the road, and remained in the right-hand lane, although there was plenty of room for the driver to move to the left-hand lane safely while passing the stationary officer vehicle. Law enforcement officers take the safety of other officers and emergency workers very seriously and will issue you a ticket if you do not move over for stationary emergency vehicles.

Let Us Help With Your Ticket

Any traffic ticket can be challenged, even tickets issued for a violation of Scott’s Law. If you have been cited for a traffic violation, you should contact an experienced Rolling Meadows traffic offenses lawyer as soon as possible after receiving your ticket to help protect your rights.

Source:

http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/fulltext.asp?DocName=062500050K11-907