State Government

Move That Fender-Bender Out of the Road!

You’re breezing down the interstate on your way home from work when traffic suddenly slows to a crawl. You creep along for miles, thinking there must be some terrible accident ahead blocking multiple lanes of traffic. Finally, you crest a hill and see that the reason you’ll be having a cold dinner tonight is nothing more than a fender-bender between two cars in the center lane. As you ease your way around the wreck, you mutter to yourself that there ought to be a law to keep minor auto accidents from causing major traffic tieups.

Well, now there is.

New legislation known as the “Quick Clearance Act” requires motorists involved in a minor, non-injury accident to move their vehicles to the shoulder of the road as soon as possible. The little-noticed law, passed last summer by the General, went into effect the first of the year.

Transportation Secretary Lyndo Tippett and Crime Control & Public Safety Secretary Bryan Beatty have joined forces to educate motorists about the legislation. Officials said many motorists believe they aren’t supposed to move vehicles involved in minor accidents until told to do so by the police. Not so, Tippett said.

“The sooner an incident is cleared from the highway, the sooner traffic flow can resume, thereby improving efficiency of the highway and reducing the chances of a secondary crash,” he said. “I applaud the General Assembly for recognizing the importance of this legislation to address one of the major causes of traffic congestion and delays.”

Studies show that for every minute a freeway lane is closed, it takes four minutes for traffic to recover. Furthermore, nearly 30 percent of all highway crashes occur when traffic is creeping along behind such backups, the DOT said.

As part of the same legislation, law enforcement officials are now also authorized to remove without liability commercial truck cargo and other personal property interfering with traffic flow. This allows officers to more quickly clear spilled cargo from the highway and restore traffic flow. In the past, concerns about liability sometimes caused delays in removing cargo.

Another new highway law on the books is the “Move Over” law, which requires motorists to move over to the farthest lane of travel when approaching any emergency vehicle with its lights flashing on a four-lane highway. Failure to do so is considered a traffic violation and could result in a $100 fine.

The DOT is erecting signs to remind motorists to “move over” and quickly clear minor incidents from the highway.

Charitable Giving Climbs: The amount of money citizens gave to charities regulated by the state more than doubled last year from about $126 million to more than $316 million, according to a report from the Secretary of State’s office. And for the first time, more than half of the money actually went to the worthy cause instead of the cost of fund-raising, the report said.

The annual Charitable Solicitation Licensing Report issued by the Secretary of State’s office covers the period from July 1, 2002, through June 30, 2003. Generally included in the report are activities of major charitable and nonprofit organizations which use professional fund-riasing services for their campaigns. Most church-oriented charities and those associated with schools, fire departments and the like are exempt from the reporting requirement.

Those that did come under the licensing law reported gross receipts of $316.2 million, of which slightly more than half — 52.7 percent — actually went to its intended purpose. The rest paid for the cost of the fund-raising campaign. In the prior year, regulated charities reported gross receipts of $126.4 million, of which less than half — 42.3 percent — actually went to its intended purpose.

Secretary of State Elaine Marshall said she was pleased by the report. “Not only did we find the amount being given to the groups we regulate more than double, but we saw a significant jump — almost 10 cents of every dollar given — move from being kept by the fund-raising companies to being sent on to the actual charities.” -- Steve Tuttle