Sheriff’s office asks drivers to move over for traffic stops after semi hits patrol car
A traffic stop early Monday “could have ended much differently” after a semi driver failed to change lanes and struck a patrol vehicle with a Sedgwick County sheriff’s deputy inside, the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post.
It happened along westbound Kellogg near Oliver around 4:15 a.m. The deputy had pulled over a motorist in a white pickup truck, and both vehicles were parked on the highway’s shoulder.
The deputy had returned to his vehicle and was sitting inside the patrol car when it was struck by a semi-truck driving in the far right lane.
The deputy sustained minor injuries, the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook, and the 34-year-old semi driver from Springfield, Missouri, stopped at the scene. He was cited for not adhering to Kansas’ “Move Over” driving law, which dictates that drivers must slow down or change lanes when passing vehicles with flashing or hazard lights.
“When you see flashing emergency lights on the side of the road, you are required by law to move over to the next lane if it is safe to do so. If you cannot safely change lanes, you must slow down significantly,” the department wrote on Facebook. “The Move Over Law exists to protect law enforcement officers, firefighters, EMS personnel, highway workers, and tow truck operators who work along our roadways every day.”
The sheriff’s office posted a video clip of the crash to Facebook; the footage cuts off at the moment the patrol car is struck because the impact damaged the in-car camera system. The department used the footage, and the opportunity, to remind motorists to move over.
“Please do your part. Slow down. Move over,” the sheriff’s office wrote on Facebook. “Help keep everyone safe.”
