Crash Responder Safety Week Starts Today in New Jersey: Slow Down, Move Over — Lives Are on the Line

Crash Responder Safety Week runs Nov. 2 through Nov. 6 this year, and its theme is a direct instruction to everyone driving past a crash scene, a tow truck or a work zone: 'Slow Down, Move Over. Lives are on the Line!' The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, which covers the region on both sides of the river, is joining safety partners to raise awareness of the dangers responders face every time they stop to help other travelers, and NJDOT promoted the week in its Nov. 2 announcements.

New Jersey has a Move Over law, as does every state: drivers must move over a lane, or slow down if they cannot move over safely, to give a buffer to the people working at the roadside — police, fire and EMS crews, tow operators, road service technicians and highway workers. The Federal Highway Administration began marking Crash Responder Safety Week in 2016, and agencies use the week each November to push traffic incident management training and public awareness together.

The reminder lands in a busy week on Newark's roads. As this station reported earlier today, barrier repairs and paving close parts of the New Jersey Turnpike's Outer Roadway overnight at Interchange 14 on four nights this week, with an outright northbound closure on Election Night — which means more crews, more cones and more flashing lights on the shoulder exactly when traffic is being funneled into fewer lanes.

Monday afternoon's 511NJ feed was otherwise routine for Newark: delays on Route 21 southbound from East 4th Avenue to I-280 and on I-280 westbound toward the Stickel Drawbridge, with all lanes open, and deck work on the Turnpike's Hudson County Extension eastbound. No lane-closing incident in Newark or Essex County was on the feed — the week's roadside risk is the planned work, and the ask is simple: when the lights are flashing, slow down and move over.