Drivers must provide a safety zone for stopped law
enforcement, as well as emergency, maintenance and certain disabled vehicles.
Wisconsin's Move Over Law (Wis. Stat. s. 346.072) was enacted in 2021 to help safeguard law enforcement officers, emergency responders, road maintenance workers, and others who work on the side of highways. In 2025, Wisconsin Act 54 added the same protections for motorists stopped along the road.
The law requires drivers to shift lanes or slow down in order to provide a "safety zone" for a squad car, ambulance, fire truck, tow truck, utility vehicle or highway maintenance vehicle stopped on the side of a road with warning lights flashing. The law also protects diabled vehicles stopped along the road with hazard lights on, emergency devices or flares placed near the vehicle, or one or more persons attending to the vehicle and visible to motorists.
Drivers have two options for creating a safety zone:
- If the road has more than one directional lane, like the Interstate, and you can switch lanes safely, you must move over to vacate the lane closest to the law enforcement or other vehicle with its lights flashing.
- If the road has a single directional lane or you can't safely move over, you must reduce your speed.
Failure of motorists to move over is one of the reasons that motor vehicle crashes kill more law enforcement officers on duty than any other cause.
Learn more about
work zone safety.
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