ADVOCACY
Do You SDMO?
Learn how the Slow Down Move Over traffic law helps save lives.
By Briony Smith
MAY 14, 2025, is Slow Down Move Over Day this year — and it’s an important reminder to follow this important law.
As drivers rushing to our destinations, we may forget to give first responders proper consideration. Paramedics, police officers, firefighters and tow truck operators deserve a safe working environment. When approaching an emergency vehicle on the road with lights flashing, simply slow down. If there’s more than one lane, move over to provide them a bigger safety buffer.
Jim Hoskins estimates that only about 60 percent of drivers follow the SDMO law. “It gives us a safe work area,” says Hoskins, an emergency road service provider for CAA, helping stranded CAA Members get back on the road. “We’re not just worrying about ourselves. We have Members outside of their cars and we have to make sure they’re safe.”
In 2018 a transport truck did not slow down or move over and hit a CAA tow truck, which then hit Hoskins. “I was very upset,” he says. “The driver even [walked] up to me and said, ‘So, how’s your day going?’ He didn’t know I was on the other side of the car [that he’d just hit]. I said, ‘You just hit this lady in her car and I went flying!’ ” As a result of that accident, Hoskins was off work for four-and-a-half months.
If we all follow the SDMO law as road users, we can help prevent such accidents. After all, says Hoskins, “we all have families to come home to.” CAA
First responders — including paramedics, police officers, firefighters and tow truck operators — need you to SDMO to keep them safe while working on the road to help motorists. | PHOTO: COURTESY OF CAA NIAGARA