Trooper Kevin Dow of the Massachusetts State Police spoke with Spectrum News 1 as traffic builds for the Labor Day holiday weekend. “We’re aware that it’s the holiday weekend. We have more vehicles than typical on the highway systems in the Commonwealth. We just want to make sure that drivers are remaining safe, paying attention to the roadway, staying off their phones, looking ahead and just being aware of what’s coming further up the roadway.”
Dow said the Holden Barracks patrols interstate 290 and 190 in Central Massachusetts. He said drivers should focus on certain areas that are hot spots. “A lot of crashes occur downtown Worcester in the area of (exits) 18, 17 and the (route) 146 exit with holiday weekends and travel. We typically see a lot more crashes down by the 12 Bravo exit in Auburn, which is the Mass Pike interchange as well as further down 290 in Marlborough at the 495 interchange on holiday weekends. There are often many crashes that occur in that area.”
The Massachusetts State Police are also emphasizing the state’s Move Over Law this holiday weekend, “The Move Over Law was signed into law in 2008 by Governor Deval Patrick. It went into effect in early spring of 2009, and the Move Over Law just requires of drivers that as they’re approaching an emergency vehicle, whether or not have blue, red or yellow lights, that that operator is slowing down and moving over. It’s a common misconception with the move over law that they only have to move over. It is required that the operator move over to the next adjacent lane furthest from the emergency vehicle and slow down as well as requiring other vehicles. If you’re already in that lane, requiring them to slow down to allow other vehicles in front of them. It’s extremely important. Oftentimes we don’t know what’s coming at us. We’re dealing with medical emergencies, with crashes, with traffic stops. And when we have to worry about what’s going on with the operator individual involved in the interaction with us on the highway, we also have to be worried about who’s coming at us. And that’s one of the main threats on the highway is the vehicles that are coming at us. Oftentimes we also deal with people that may be experiencing mental mental disabilities or some sort of that effect where we need to be. We need to be mainly focused on them. EMS personnel be mainly focused on them. So we don’t that’s a situation that can evolve rapidly and if we know that we have that lane and that plenty of space to work with that individual, that’s that’s what’s most important to us is everyone’s safety.”…