There are plenty of designated days, weeks and months meant to raise awareness and perhaps steer conversations toward finding solutions to some of our biggest challenges. For example, this past Saturday, the third Saturday in October, was National Move Over Day.

It’s a day set aside to draw attention to the laws that require motorists to move into another lane and slow down for any stationary vehicle with flashing lights on the side of the road. While there is some variance in laws among the states, that generally means moving into an open lane and reducing your speed by at least 20 miles below that posted limit whenever you encounter vehicles with flashing lights of any color, including law enforcement officers, emergency responders, road construction workers, maintenance vehicles, utility crews and tow trucks.

Failure to do so can have deadly consequences, as residents just north of here in Canfield were reminded last Thursday, when Ohio State Highway Patrol Trooper Nicholas Clayton, 40, lost his life in an accident along state Route 11 northbound. According to the patrol, Clayton had responded to a disabled tractor-trailer in the right-hand lane and was sitting in his cruiser with its emergency lights activated, when a truck driver crashed into the back of the cruiser. That impact forced the trooper’s cruiser into the back of the disabled tractor-trailer, striking its driver who was standing outside of the vehicle.

Clayton was pronounced dead at the scene, while the driver of the disabled vehicle was flown by medical helicopter to a hospital for his injuries.

Sadly, such incidents are becoming more common on Ohio roads. According to the Ohio Department of Transportation, 90 ODOT crews have been struck by a vehicle so far this year. That’s more than the 84 such incidents reported for all of 2024.

Need more numbers? According to the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety, a roadside assistance provider is struck and killed by a passing vehicle approximately every two weeks.

National crash data suggests, the foundation adds, that between 400 and 500 ordinary motorists and good samaritans are struck and killed each year outside of disabled vehicles along roads. The foundation also reports that as many as 42 percent of drivers say they do not obey move over laws because it “was somewhat or not dangerous at all” to the workers. And, the survey revealed that 23 percent of motorists said they were unaware of the law in their state.

While it would be nice to think drivers would be educated about updates to the law and follow it out of a sense of responsibility for the safety of fellow users of the road, it is important to remember there are also fines and possible jail time imposed for those caught ignoring the rules.

Move over — if you are able to do so safely — and slow down when approaching a stationary vehicle with hazard or warning lights, flashers, flares or a reflective warning sign. That could be first responders, law enforcement, maintenance crews, disabled vehicles, tow trucks and more.

It’s the safe thing to do, it’s the right thing to do, and it could save a life.