move over

In your travels around the state of Illinois, keep this in mind. Scott's Law requires drivers to leave a safe amount of space around stopped emergency vehicles. Click this link and read both pages for details. The law was named after Chicago Fire Dept. Lt. Scott Gillen, who was killed by a drunk driver while assisting at a crash scene along the Dan Ryan Expressway. Please help keep police, firefighters and other emergency workers safe so they can help keep us safe.

I got this from a friend: My friend Denise was driving at a legal speed on I-88 in the right lane. An Illinois Police car was sitting in the right shoulder with the lights on, and the officer was sitting in the car. No one was pulled over. She continued in the right lane and passed him. She was immediately pulled and cited for Violating Scott's law which I found is a law that requires you to move over (if possible) to the left lane if an emergency vehicle is on the side of the road. She pleaded ignorance of the law but was given a ticket and was assigned a mandatory court date for which she appeared. The judge asked her if she wanted a trial. She said that she could not testify that she did not commit the violation but that she was unaware of the law. She pleaded guilty and was fined $100.00. She thought that was it. Two weeks later she received a notice from the Secretary of State that her license has been suspended for 3 months because of this violation. She called the Secretary of State's office, as no one ever mentioned that she would lose her license. As expected, they did not care and if she wanted a hearing on the matter or a hearing to ask for a license to drive to work, she could expect a hearing date in about 3 months. Apparently, in 2007, the state police issued a record number of tickets for this offense.