Senate Bill 89 requires motorists to move over or slow down for any vehicle with flashing lights on the side of the highway, including first responders, law enforcement, maintenance workers or cars with their hazard lights flashing.
It’s not just a courtesy. It’s the law.
Safety on the roads is a shared responsibility. We all must do our part to get everyone home safely. At any time, a vehicle may need to pull over onto a highway shoulder, which can be a hazardous situation for those parked on the side of the roadway and for passing motorists.
Additionally, Oklahoma’s highway work zones are not just established construction zones; they can happen any time, any place for emergency responders working a crash scene, or for maintenance crews making emergency repairs.
In 2019, the state Legislature and governor approved Senate Bill89, which amended the safety zone law to include any and all vehicles with flashing lights, including hazard lights. The law went into effect Nov. 1, 2019. It updated prior legislation approved in 2015, which can be found at HB 1113 and amended the safety zone law to include maintenance vehicles.
The law requires any driver approaching all stationary vehicles displaying flashing lights, even motorists with hazard lights, to move into a lane that is not adjacent to the vehicle. If no additional lane exists, motorists should proceed with “due caution” and slow to “a safe speed for the existing road, weather, and traffic conditions.” The law also includes any parked maintenance, law enforcement or emergency vehicles.Violation of this law may result in a fine from law enforcement.
Drivers must move over for:
- Any vehicle displaying flashing lights, including hazard lights;
- Oklahoma Department of Transportation or Oklahoma Turnpike Authority maintenance vehicles;
- Oklahoma Highway Patrol or local law enforcement vehicles; and
- Emergency vehicles (ambulance or wrecker with flashing red/blue lights).
Work zone facts
- Temporary work zones can happen at any time and at any location, but care must be given to keep those involved safe.
- 60 ODOT employees have been killed in the line of duty – more than any other state agency. View the worker memorial page: Fallen Highway Workers
- 312 people were injured in 238 collisions in Oklahoma highway work zones in 2018
- 17 people were killed in Oklahoma highway work zone collisions in 2018
- 76 people including four highway workers have been killed and 1,557injured in work zones in the past five years
- Most work zone collisions were caused by driver inattention, traveling at unsafe speeds or following too close and CAN be prevented.
