Const. Bryce Haight was clocking the speeds of vehicles on Highway 104 near Amherst on Wednesday.
He was also thinking about his former partner, Const. Frank Deschenes.
“Today was a little more emotional, for sure, putting on the uniform, coming to work today, knowing what we were doing today, but I'm proud that I'm out here and can represent Frank,” Haight said. “
One year ago, Deschenes was struck and killed while on duty after stopping to help motorists on the side of the highway in Memramcook, N.B.
His death focused attention on the move-over law, which has also been called “Frankie's law,” after Deschenes.
It requires highway motorists who are approaching a police or emergency vehicle with its lights flashing to move over to the far lane and slow down to 60 km/h.
Const. Haight says people only seem to be getting half the message.
“Most people are moving over -- we had a few violators before we set up here that didn't move over -- but no one drops their speed to sixty kilometres an hour,” Haight said.
There's a steady stream of drivers not following the law at this checkpoint.
One car stayed in the inside lane and it didn't take long for a police cruiser to follow with lights flashing.
“It's basically like every other day,” said Const. Ryan Wilson. “I would say about half the motorists are getting over. Only about a quarter are getting over and slowing down though.”
Emergency responders from across the region had their lights flashing as they gathered in the parking lot of a local shopping mall.
Besides police, EHS and fire trucks, the move-over law will soon include an amendment, to include tow-truck drivers.
“I've had to jump out of the way when I'm changing a tire on the side of the road,” said tow-truck driver Sherman Little.“A car came that close to me.”
Dave Dickie says it’s a challenging job at the best of times.
“We also got to lay down underneath vehicles to hook them up and the cars go by there,” Dickie said. “Some of them are mostly speeding. They just zip on by. Everybody's in a hurry today. Nobody wants to slow down, right?”
The fine for not obeying the law is close to $360. Officials are hoping that events like today will remind motorists to obey the law, and to honour the memory of a fallen Mountie.
With files from CTV Atlantic’s Dan MacIntosh.
