New Law Honors Two Officers Struck, Killed by Vehicles
Posted By
Karen on Dec 28, 2010 5:00am PST
In 2002 State Trooper Robert Ambrose was filling out an accident report while parked on the shoulder on the NYS Thruway in Yonkers. He was then hit in the rear and his vehicle was engulfed in flames. He was dead before he could be rescued.
A new state law (Ambrose-Searles Move Over Act) requiring motorists to change lanes or slow down when passing an emergency vehicle stopped on the side of the road, could help keep other police officers alive.
This new law calls for fines of up to $275 and two points for violations.
The new law also carries the name of Onondaga County Deputy Sheriff Glenn Searles, who was killed along Interstate 481 in 2003 when Sheriff Searles was returning to his vehicle for road flares when a minivan struck and killed him.
The law makes New York the 49th state to enact similar legislation.