Stony Plain hit and run prompts move over message

Edmonton, Alberta — April 6, 2015 — Edmonton area tow truck drivers are reminding motorists to give them room to work. Stony Plain RCMP are still searching for the driver of a white one-tonne truck that fled the scene after clipping the shoulder of a tow operator late last month. According to local towers and other emergency roadside workers, incidents like the March 23 hit and run are far too common. Meadowlark Towing owner Randy Shenfield told the Stony Plain Reporter his employees are often at the mercy of drivers failing to abide by the province’s Move Over Law—requiring motorists to slow down to 60 km/hr or lower when passing a parked emergency vehicle with their lights flashing. He says the longer you’re working roadside the more dangerous it becomes, causing his employees to have frequent close calls with oncoming traffic. “People just have to be more aware of their surroundings and move over. There are some people who just don’t understand; some don’t care, and some feel like we’re invading their space, when it’s actually the other way around,” the Spruce Grove-based Shenfield said in the report. “It’s a simple message.” Even so, it’s a message that doesn’t always get through, Spruce Grove/Stony Plain RCMP Constable Shelley Nasheim told the Reporter. “It’s a lack of education; people forget, or they’re not thinking. It is a problem,” she says. Motorists in violation of section 115 of the province’s Traffic Safety Act are subject to demerit points and fines ranging from $115 to $703, based on the severity of their speeding offence. The province plans to increase fines by an average of 35 percent this year, reaching a maximum of $949.