After a car accident, those involved will now need to remove their car from the road because of a new law starting Friday.
The new law, which was previously a misdemeanor, is being reinstated as a class “C” infraction Friday, according to a release from the Indiana State Police.
The law is being instated with the intent of reducing the risk of secondary crashes on roadways, according to the release.
“If, after an operator’s motor vehicle comes to a stop in the traveled portion of the highway, the operator shall, as soon as safely possible, move the motor vehicle off the traveled portion of the highway and to a location as close to the accident as possible,” the legislation, IC 9-26-1-1.2, reads. It goes on to detail that, if the accident resulted in any deaths, trapped or injured persons or involved the transportation of hazardous materials, the car is required to stay put.
The new law applies to all government maintained roadways, while the previous misdemeanor applied only to interstate highways.
The law was broadened to make all roads safer, though multilane highways, like those surrounding the Indianapolis area, are more prone to both primary and secondary car crashes.
According to Indiana’s Traffic Incident Management Effort, or IN-Time, each time a freeway lane is blocked during a peak travel time, four minutes of traffic delay occur.
IN-Time also records statistics that state secondary crashes account for 22 percent of all traffic crashes, chances of a secondary crash increase 2.8 percent or every minute the first crash is left on the road and 18 percent of secondary crashes result in fatalities.
The ISP press release states no tickets or arrests were issued while the law was a misdemeanor and they don’t anticipate that changing now.
Anicka Slachta
