While driving toward home, I passed through the city of Nephi. I noticed a cop car off to the side of the road, and instinctively slowed down a bit, even though I was only doing about 80.
As I got closer, I was suddenly struck by the fear that I had missed a sign that reduced the speed limit to 65 instead of 75, and so I slowed to 72 by the time I passed the cop, hoping that would be enough.
I watched with increasing dread as the cop pulled onto the freeway, sped up enough to start catching up to me, and then turned on his flashing lights.
I pulled over, and the cop pulled in behind me, got out of his car, and came up to my window.
“License and registration?”
I handed them over, and he went back to his car.
Eventually he returned, and handed them back to me. “Are you aware that you’re supposed to slow down and move into the far lane when passing an emergency vehicle that is stopped on the shoulder?”
Never in my life do I recall having heard of such a law, and so I told him I was unaware of that law.
“Ignorance of the law is no excuse.” OK, he didn’t say that, but that phrase came to my mind.
What he did say was that it was posted on signs along the freeway, and that in another 20 miles or so I’d see one of the signs.
The cop then proceeded to tell me that my not moving over to the next lane and not slowing down (although I had slowed, apparently it was not enough that he noticed) was considered “failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.” He explained that the law was there to protect emergency personnel and their vehicles. “In fact,” he said, “the way I got this job is that the officer I replaced was killed by someone running into him when he was stopped on the side of the road.”
And then he let me go. No ticket, just a lecture about safety.
Sure enough, about twenty miles down the road, there was a sign which explained the law. (It’s not a very easy-to-read sign, because it’s fairly long and passing it at 75mph you don’t have a lot of time to read.) I just thought I’d pass along this info to others who, like me, might be completely unaware of such a law.
And, in case you’re interested, the History of the Utah Highway Patrol has a page about the trooper who was killed while stopped at the side of the road. This probably explains why the cops around Nephi are particularly sensitive about this issue.
Fortunately, that was the last complication in my journey, and I made it home safe and sound.