The Protecting Roadside First Responders Act (S.2700)

On Oct. 24, 2019, Sen. Durbin (D-IL) introduced legislation designed to reduce first responder roadside deaths.  The bill would establish a new national safety priority within an existing federal grant program to increase public awareness of “Move Over” laws and encourage implementation of life-saving vehicle technology.  Specifically, the Protecting Roadside First Responders Act would establish move over law education and compliance as a national highway safety priority under existing NHTSA programs.  This would allow states to apply for grant funding to execute move over law awareness campaigns, and to equip vehicles with digital alert and crash avoidance technology.

Additionally, the legislation would:

1. Require NHTSA to promulgate rules mandating crash avoidance technology on all new motor vehicles, within two years, including automatic emergency braking, forward collision warnings, and lane departure warnings. 

2. Require all federal fleet vehicles to have crash avoidance technology (automatic emergency braking, forward collision warnings, and lane departure warnings) within five years.

3. Require all federal fleet vehicles used for emergency response activities to be equipped with digital alert technology within five years.

4. Require research on the efficacy of Move Over laws and related public awareness campaigns as well as recommendations on how to improve these efforts to prevent roadside deaths.

The bill was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.