Roadside chat - Do what is right. Move over for flashing lights
It’s dark and you’re driving on the interstate. Up ahead you see a bunch of flashing lights at a crash scene. You aren’t sure if the flashing lights are that of law enforcement, a maintenance vehicle, someone working on utilities, or just someone broken down alongside the road. What’s your first move?
No matter what type of lights are flashing, your instinct should be to move over and slow down to a speed that would allow you to easily react if something unexpected were to happen.
Seeing what’s ahead and knowing the right thing to do is key to staying safe on the road. Emergency, maintenance, or utility vehicles routinely pull off to the side of the road to do what needs to be done. These types of vehicles are typically pretty easy to spot if you’re paying attention. It may be more difficult to see a stalled passenger vehicle alongside the road, but the rules for you as a passing driver are the same. If you see any vehicle with lights flashing, you should move over if you can, and slow down.
We see this type of thing ALL THE TIME on our traffic cameras - https://youtu.be/EJQQxcpQWE0
So far in 2021, there have been 165 deaths in traffic crashes. That is an increase of five since last Monday. To see statistics published daily by the Office of Driver Services, go to the daily fatality report at https://www.iowadot.gov/mvd/stats/daily.pdf