By Everything GP (Brady Ratzlaff)

AMA aiming for new roadside safety legislation

Sep 10, 2018 | 6:01 AM

EDMONTON- Drivers in Alberta could be seeing some changes when it comes to passing accident scenes on highways.

Alberta is currently the only province where motorists passing an accident scene must slow down to 60 km/h in the lane immediately next to the area, not all lanes.

Alberta Motor Association Vice President of government and stakeholder relations Jeff Kasbrick says Alberta is looking to join the rest of the country by implementing the Slow Down Move Over legislation.

“Every other province in Canada, their Slow Down Move Over legislation applies to all adjacent lanes in the same direction of travel. We think at AMA that we should be extending our Slow Down Move Over law legislation to all existing lanes of travel in the same direction.” 

Kasbrick adds there are issues with the current roadside safety legislation in Alberta and AMA has been pushing for this new legislation since last year.

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“The problem that is created is you get these variable speeds that exist, where you have vehicles that are going 60 [km/h] in one lane and vehicles that are going 110 [km/h] in another lane. We just believe it’s a simple ask to ask motorists to take a couple of seconds out of here drive and for all vehicles in the same direction to slow down.”

Kasbrick says every Albertan deserves to be safe in their office workspace.

“In the case of tow-truck operators as well as first responders many times their office is the roadside and the roadside can often be a dangerous place.”

He adds the new rules would require a legislative change and debate with the government of Alberta before bringing it to fruition.

There were 443 tickets issued for speeding past emergency vehicles in 2017 in Alberta.