What Is Texas’s “Move Over” Law?
Texas’s Move Over Law requires drivers to change lanes or slow down when approaching certain stopped vehicles, including emergency vehicles, tow trucks, and highway maintenance vehicles. The law helps protect workers and emergency responders from being struck by passing traffic.
Under Texas Transportation Code § 545.157, drivers who fail to follow these rules can face fines or criminal charges. If a violation causes an accident, the driver may also be held liable for resulting injuries.
The Short Answer: When You Must Move Over or Slow Down in Texas
Texas drivers must move out of the lane closest to a covered roadside vehicle when traveling on a highway with at least two lanes in their direction. Alternatively, they must slow down as required by law.
The Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) explains that drivers must:
- Move over one lane: Leave the lane closest to the stopped vehicle.
- Slow down by 20 mph: If not moving over, reduce speed to at least 20 mph below the posted limit when the limit is 25 mph or higher.
- Slow to 5 mph: When the posted speed limit is below 25 mph, reduce speed to no more than 5 mph.
Drivers should change lanes only when they can do so safely. If traffic prevents a safe lane change, slowing down as required is the appropriate response.
Which Vehicles Are Covered Under the Law?
Texas’s Move Over Law protects several types of emergency, public service, and roadside work vehicles. Coverage depends on the vehicle and whether it meets the law’s warning-light or other operating requirements.
Protected vehicles include:
- Police cars, fire trucks, and ambulances displaying required emergency signals
- Tow trucks using authorized warning equipment
- TxDOT and qualifying highway maintenance or construction vehicles
- Utility service vehicles displaying required warning lights
- Certain garbage and recycling collection vehicles
- Qualifying toll-road service vehicles
- Animal control vehicles performing specified roadway duties
- Parking enforcement vehicles displaying required warning lights
Effective September 1, 2025, Texas expanded the law to include qualifying animal control and parking enforcement vehicles.
These protections help reduce the danger faced by people working near moving traffic.
Penalties for Violating the Move Over Law
Violating Texas’s Move Over Law can result in fines, misdemeanor charges, or felony charges, depending on the circumstances. Penalties increase for repeat violations and accidents involving bodily injury.
Under Texas Transportation Code § 545.157, penalties can include:
- First offense: A misdemeanor plus a fine
- Repeat offense: A larger fine for a second or subsequent violation within five years.
- Bodily injury: A Class A misdemeanor if the violation causes bodily injury.
- Repeat injury offense: A state jail felony for a second or subsequent qualifying offense involving bodily injury.
The court may also suspend a repeat offender’s driver’s license for up to six months. These consequences are intended to discourage dangerous driving around roadside workers and emergency responders.
How Move Over Violations Cause Roadside Accidents
Move Over violations cause roadside accidents when drivers pass too close to stopped vehicles or fail to reduce their speed. This can leave workers and other motorists with little time or space to avoid a collision.
Common accident scenarios include:
- A speeding vehicle striking a tow truck operator
- A distracted driver hitting a police vehicle during a traffic stop
- A motorist sideswiping a stopped emergency vehicle
- A driver hitting a highway worker near a maintenance vehicle
- A vehicle failing to slow down near roadside personnel
These crashes can cause broken bones, traumatic brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, and even fatalities.
Moving over or slowing down creates additional space between passing traffic and people working near the roadway.
Who’s Liable If You’re Hit by a Driver Who Didn’t Move Over?
A driver who violates the Move Over Law may be liable if their negligence causes an accident. However, the violation alone does not automatically establish responsibility for every resulting injury.
To establish liability, an injured person generally must show that the driver failed to meet a legal duty and that this failure caused their injuries. Evidence may include police reports, witness statements, dashcam footage, photographs, and vehicle damage.
Texas also follows a modified comparative negligence rule. Under Texas Civil Practice and Remedies Code § 33.001, injured people generally cannot recover compensation if they are more than 50% responsible for an accident.
Benton Accident & Injury Lawyers has extensive experience and can investigate roadside crashes, identify responsible parties, and pursue compensation for medical bills, lost income, pain and suffering, and other damages.
Contact the Texas Car Accident Lawyers at Benton Accident & Injury Lawyers for a Free Consultation
Texas’s Move Over Law is designed to protect people working along busy roads. When drivers ignore these rules, they can cause serious accidents that leave victims facing painful injuries and financial hardship.
At Benton Accident & Injury Lawyers, our attorneys have extensive experience handling injury claims and have recovered millions for clients. Contact our Texas car accident lawyers today to schedule a free consultation and learn how we can help you pursue compensation.
We proudly serve in Dallas County and its surrounding areas:
Benton Accident & Injury Lawyers
1825 Market Center Blvd # 350, Dallas, TX 75207
Phone: (214) 556-8321
Hours Open: 24/7
Our firm is located near you. We have an office in Dallas.
Find us with our GeoCoordinates: 32.7950252,-96.8241861
About the Author
Jeff BentonJeff Benton is the founder of Benton Accident & Injury Lawyers in Dallas. He represents clients in claims involving truck accidents, car accidents, wrongful death, workplace accidents, and other forms of negligence. Jeff is known for taking on difficult cases that other firms decline and for fighting aggressively against powerful insurance companies and corporate defendants. He was honored with the Dallas Trial Lawyers Association’s John Howie Award for his pursuit of justice and remains committed to helping injured individuals and families throughout Texas. Click here to see some of his notable case results.
