Holiday Commuters Urged To Drive Safe, Stay Alert This Weekend

BELLEVUE, WA — It's going to be a busy holiday weekend on Washington's freeways, but that doesn't mean it has to be a deadly one.

In just the last two months, there have been two dangerous crashes involving tow truck technicians who had been on the job, pulling disabled vehicles from Washington's interstates. In one incident, a Longview tow company owner and two employees were hit and killed along I-5. In the other, a Vancouver technician lost his leg.

To keep similar incidents from happening this weekend — when hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians will be hitting the roads for the 4th of July — AAA, Clark County Fire District 6, the Washington State Department of Transportation, and Washington State Patrol and several local towing companies have banded together for a new PSA urging drivers to follow Washington’s “Slow Down, Move Over” law.

“As a traffic safety advocacy group and an emergency roadside service provider, educating the driving public is a key part of what we do here at AAA Washington,” said AAA spokesperson Kelly Just. “We’re using this PSA to explain Washington’s ‘Slow Down, Move Over’ Law, emphasize that tow truck operators are emergency responders and urge drivers to take action and protect these workers who want to go home to their families at the end of the day.”

Under that law, drivers on highways with at least two lanes in each direction must make these changes if they see flashing emergency lights:

• Move over at least one lane if it is safe to do so.
  • If moving over is not safe, they must slow down to at least 10 mph below the posted speed limit.
• On roads with fewer than four lanes of traffic, drivers approaching an emergency need to slow down and yield right-of-way.

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) tow truck operators work in one of the country's most dangerous careers, 15 time deadlier than all other private industries. An average of 24 emergency responders, including tow operators, die annually while working on American roadways.

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