Pink Signs in New Jersey "Video Added"

[TowZone]

Moving over on an N.J road could save a first responder’s life. These pink signs will remind you.

 

 

Donna Setaro, center, mother of State Trooper Marc Castellano, who was struck and killed by a car in 2010, places a Move Over law sticker on a DOT truck Friday. Joining her at an awareness event was, left, Eric Heitmann, division of highway traffic safety director, Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, transportation commissioner and State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan.

 

By Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

 

Jersey drivers who hit the highways this summer will see big pink signs and posters in Quick Chek stores to remind them to move over one lane or slow down when they see first responders or road crews.

 

They’re the type of reminders that could have spared NJDOT worker Andrew Richards from being injured earlier this year.

 

Richards, 58 of Willingboro, was trapped in the cab of his Emergency Service Patrol truck when he and State Police stopped for a crash on I-295 south in Lawrence Township earlier this year. The driver of the vehicle that hit his truck lost control after hitting debris in the road, colliding with the patrol truck on the left shoulder and crushing the cab, Richards said. He returned to the job after suffering neck and back injuries.

 

“Had they moved over, it would have been a different story,” he said at a Friday event to launch an awareness campaign for the state’s Move Over Law at the Richard Stockton Service area on the New Jersey Turnpike.

 

That 2009 law requires a driver to either move over one lane or slow down when approaching a crash scene, a disabled vehicle or construction area. Bright pink portable highway signs, telling drivers to move over, and smaller stickers of the same design will be seen on roadsides and on NJDOT and other first responder vehicles this summer as reminders.

 

The goal is that every first responder, road worker, and tow truck driver “goes home at night” after their shift, said Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, state transportation commissioner.

 

Andrew Richards of Willingboro, a state DOT Emergency Services Patrol worker who was injured warning traffic of a crash on I-295, gets a hug from Donna Setaro, mother of a state trooper killed by a driver 11 years ago at an event to raise awareness of the state Move Over law to protect first responders.

 

Move Over law posters will be displayed in 72 Quick Chek stores and 67 gas stations, she said. In 2021, 22 first responders or highway workers have been killed across the country, she said.

 

State Police, Department of Transportation and State Highway Safety Division officials joined with Donna Setaro, the mother of State Trooper Marc Castellano, who was struck and killed by a car in June 2010 while he was working on the side of I-195. In 11 years she has conducted hundreds of presentations to 140,000 people to raise awareness of the law.

“I hope the (move over law) stickers will become a familiar brand, so when people see it, they know what it means,” Setaro said. “It would be nice if it (moving over or slowing down) became an involuntary reflex.”

 

Most first responders have had a close call, including New Jersey’s top cop, State Police Superintendent Col. Patrick Callahan, who recalled the only warning he had was the sound of tires on the rumble strip between the shoulder and the travel lane.

 

“I remember having to dive on the hood of my troop car because of a distracted driver,” he said. “The campaign is to remind people to slow down in the most densely populated state in the nation, it saves lives.”

 

All the speakers touched on the death of Trooper Castellano as an example of what’s at stake. He was hit by a vehicle traveling at 70 mph and his body thrown hundreds of feet by the impact, Setaro said.

 

“I think about his last moments…I remember at the hospital, they said nothing more could be done and the nurse taping his eyes shut,” she said. “I’m continuing to do what he’d want me to do.”

 

The Move Over law was modified in 2019, to stiffen penalties and assess two motor vehicle points for repeat offenders convicted of a violation three or more times in 12 months, said Eric Heitmann, state division of highway traffic safety director.

 

“If you see flashing lights (on the side of the road), I urge you to do what’s right, slow down and move over,” he said.

 

But Setaro said it’s not about the tickets or fines.

 

Sunday will be the eleventh anniversary of the crash that claimed her son’s life.

 

“I went to the cemetery (this week.) It feels like yesterday,” she said.

 

RESOURCE LINK

[TowForce]

 

NJDOT Commissioner Diane Gutierrez-Scaccetti, NJSP Superintendent Colonel Patrick Callahan, and other state transportation agencies that make up the NJ Traffic Incident Management (NJTIM) task force, launched a bumper sticker and poster campaign to raise public awareness of the Slow Down, #MoveOverLaw.

The goal of this campaign is to remind drivers approaching stopped emergency or work vehicles to #SLOWDOWN and if it is safe to do so, #MOVEOVER.

Visit NJTIM.org for more information.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The goal of this campaign is to remind drivers approaching stopped emergency or work vehicles to #SLOWDOWN and if it is safe to do so, #MOVEOVER.

Visit NJTIM.org for more information.