JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – With Memorial Day weekend approaching and more drivers expected on the road, Florida road rangers are warning motorists about the three most common reasons drivers end up stranded.
They’re also reminding them of a law designed to keep highway workers safe: the Move Over Law, which requires motorists to move over a lane for an emergency, service, utility, and disabled vehicles stopped on the side of the road, or slow down to 20 mph below the posted speed limit if it is not safe to move over.
As of Jan. 1, 2025, Florida’s Move Over law has been expanded to include any vehicle parked on the side of the road with hazard lights flashing, emergency flares, or visible emergency signage. Even disabled vehicles or a vehicle with a flat tire is protected under the law.
Stunning video captured along Florida highways shows what can happen when drivers fail to follow the Move Over Law.
One piece of footage shows the inside of a road ranger truck that was struck from behind on the First Coast Expressway on Jacksonville’s Westside. The road ranger had been assisting a Florida Highway Patrol trooper who responded to a crash, and the impact pushed the ranger’s truck into the back of the trooper’s car.
In a separate incident out of Gainesville, a road ranger truck was hit by a semi and pushed over a guardrail into a marsh while the ranger was on duty. Flashing lights can be seen in the footage. Fortunately, the ranger was not inside the vehicle at the time.
Video from I-95 in St. Johns County shows a road ranger’s colleague driving when a semi-truck clipped the back of his pickup, sending it into a spin. The driver was not hurt.
Top 3 reasons for breakdowns
Road rangers like Brian Caudron Baio patrol state highways not only to support law enforcement at crash scenes, but also to assist stranded motorists.
According to rangers, there are three common reasons Northeast Florida drivers end up on the side of the road:
- Flat tires. Since last year, road rangers have responded to more than 9,200 flat tire calls in northeast Florida alone, and have had to inflate tires for nearly 4,000 vehicles.
- Running out of gas. Nearly 4,400 vehicles were stranded because drivers ran out of fuel before reaching a gas station. Road rangers will provide gas to get drivers to the nearest exit or station, but there is a limit to how many times that service is free.
- Dead batteries. Road rangers have jump-started just over 1,600 vehicles since the beginning of last year.
“We won’t deny anyone service at any point. We do keep track of people whenever we do provide service for them. So whether it’s a flat, whether it’s gas, anything, what we do is that we record the tag and then we have a system that lets us know that, ‘Hey, you’ve reached the limit.’ So we can provide you gas specifically three times in a year, and that’s it,” Baio said.
Drivers can reach a road ranger by dialing *347 from a mobile phone.