Nassau cops target 'move-over' violators

Nassau County's Highway Patrol Bureau began a two-week enforcement Sunday of the Ambrose-Searles Move-Over Act, which requires motorists to change lanes when approaching stopped emergency vehicles, police said.

The two-week detail runs through April 22, Nassau County police said in a news release.

The move-over act, which became state law on Jan. 1, is designed to protect emergency responders from oncoming and passing traffic on highways. The law requires drivers to "exercise due care to avoid colliding with an authorized emergency vehicle which is parked, stopped or standing" and is displaying "one or more red or combination red and white lights."

The law also says that drivers on parkways, interstates and other controlled-access highways with multiple lanes are required to move from the lane immediately adjacent to the emergency vehicle.

The law is named for State Trooper Robert Ambrose and Onondaga County Sheriff Glenn Searles, who were killed while their patrol vehicles were stopped along roads.

In February, Nassau County police officer Michael Califano, 44, was killed after authorities said a flatbed truck driven by a man who had dozed off slammed into the rear of his stopped patrol car on the Long Island Expressway.

Violation of the act is punishable by a fine of up to $275 and two points on the driver's record.