LANSING, Mich. — Drivers who come up on flashing lights along a Michigan road this week are getting a pointed reminder from the state: slow down and get over. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has proclaimed Nov. 2-6 as Crash Responder Safety Week, aimed at protecting the police, firefighters, medics, tow operators and road crews who work crash scenes beside moving traffic.
The proclamation cites state highway safety figures showing Michigan logged 290,221 traffic crashes in 2025, one about every minute and 49 seconds. Of those, 2,532 involved an emergency vehicle, including two deadly crashes and 330 that caused injuries. Wrecks that combined a distracted driver with an emergency vehicle fell from 172 in 2024 to 159 last year, a 7.6% drop. Nationally, 36 responders were struck and killed at traffic incidents in 2025, one of them in Michigan, and 26 more have died that way since January.
Under the Move Over law, a driver approaching a stopped police car, fire truck, ambulance, rescue unit or road service vehicle with its lights going must cut speed to at least 10 mph under the posted limit and shift fully into an open lane. When traffic, weather or the road make a lane change unsafe, the driver still has to slow by that much and pass carefully with as much room as possible. Tow trucks and Michigan Department of Transportation safety vehicles count as road service vehicles, and the rule also covers garbage haulers, utility crews and road maintenance trucks with lights flashing.
Breaking the law around emergency vehicles is a civil infraction carrying a $400 fine and two points on a license. Penalties rise sharply when someone gets hurt: injuring an officer, firefighter or other responder is a felony punishable by up to two years in prison and a $1,000 fine, and causing a responder’s death can bring up to 15 years and a $7,500 fine. Failing to move over for the other covered vehicles is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days.
Section: More Grand Rapids MI crime news
Filed under: Grand Rapids MI Traffic News
