Mover Over Law in Florida, have you heard about it?

Our topic today will be the Florida Move Over Law, we decide to write about it because the large number of people admitting not knowing anything or never heard about it. However, the lack of knowledge has had very sad and costly consequences in Florida and through the USA in general.

At JMP Driving School, the following is covered when we teach about the Move Over Law:

Definition of Emergency Vehicle: an authorized vehicle to provide medical services, rescue services or enforce law to maintain order, usually they are equipped with lights and sirens as required by law to be visible from far.

The Move Over Law in Florida has two different aspects to be explain:

1-      When an emergency vehicle is approaching from behind: let’s explore the scenarios for this aspect:

a)       we should move over (when we can safely do so) to provide sufficient room/space for them to pass, or

b)      If we are driving in a one lane road, we should pull over as soon as it is safe to the side of the road and don’t move until they pass.

(Here we refer to any police car, ambulance, fire truck or any fire rescue vehicle.)

2-      When an emergency vehicle is stopped ahead of us: there are different scenarios and here the info we need to know

a)       we should move over a lane (whenever possible) allowing an empty lane between our vehicle and the emergency one, or

b)      If we can’t mover over or we are driving in a two-lane road, we should slow down to drive 20 mph less than posted speed limit, or

c)       If the posted speed limit is 20 mph or less, we should drive at 5 mph.

(Here we refer to any police car, ambulance, fire truck, fire rescue vehicles, tow trucks, utility service vehicles/trucks or garbage trucks.)

Failure to obey this law, is a moving violation punishable with fine, fees and points on our driving record, as disclosed on Florida Statutes Chapter 316.126.