This is the day that careless driving in highway work zones becomes a more serious issue. Stiffer fines for moving violations in highway work zones are in effect….now. Senator Michael Gibbons of Kirkwood sponsored the bill that has become law today that says anybody who endangers a highway worker in a work zone can be fined one-thousand dollars and get four points on their drivers license. Kill or injure a highway worker and the fine can reach TEN thousand dollars and loss of a drivers license. And it doesn’t take much to endanger a worker. Pass another vehicle in a work zone–you’ve done it. Be 15 miles an hour over the zone limit–you’ve done it. Fail to stop for a light or a flagman–you’ve done it. Six people building roads have been killed this year in Missouri. The bill also stiffens penalties for motorists who don’t move over when they see an emergency vehicle approaching or spot one on their side of the road. The new law also says a motorist who does not pull over and slow down and hits and kills an emergency worker commits manslaughter. Gibbons says he has seen more motorists obeying that law even before it went into effect. He also says highway patrol troopers he has talked to are seeing the same thing. (A full summary of the new law (SB872) is available through the Missouri State Senate web page: www.senate.mo.gov)
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