It was a rough stretch on Illinois interstates this week for state troopers, as four Illinois State Police squad cars were struck within roughly 12 hours while parked on the roadside. Authorities say three of the crashes involved drivers who did not comply with the state's Move Over law, and the fourth unfolded in poor weather that made road conditions hazardous. Some of the squad cars were damaged badly enough to be rendered undrivable, but in the initial accounts, there were no reports of life‑threatening injuries to troopers.
In a March 18 post, Illinois State Police said the agency experienced four squad‑car strikes in nearly 12 hours, with three labeled as Move Over law‑related and one attributed to weather. The update included photos of damaged squad cars and noted that each crash happened while troopers were responding to or working existing crash scenes. According to the Illinois State Police, the department is reminding drivers to slow down and move over when they encounter emergency vehicles with flashing lights.
Local outlets quickly picked up the warnings and filled in more scene details. WJOL reported that on Feb. 15, a Mercedes‑Benz struck a squad car on I‑80 near New Lenox and that the driver was charged after the squad car had to be towed, while Patch covered a Feb. 8 crash on Illinois 53 at Algonquin Road in which a pickup failed to move over and fled the scene. Taken together, those accounts track with the agency's postings and show how the incidents stretched across the Chicago suburbs and beyond.
Illinois State Police press releases line up with those reports and add names and charges. A Feb. 15 I‑80 release about the New Lenox crash identified the driver as 26‑year‑old Imani Tribett and said the motorist was charged with failure to reduce speed and a Scott's Law violation, and a Feb. 8 release detailed the Illinois 53 crash at Algonquin Road. The releases also emphasize that Move Over crashes have been a recurring problem for the department in recent years. See Illinois State Police and Illinois State Police for the full notices.
Legal and enforcement angle
Illinois' Move Over statute, commonly called Scott's Law, requires motorists to slow down and, when possible, change lanes when approaching stopped emergency vehicles with flashing lights, and penalties can include fines and license suspensions, according to the Illinois Department of Transportation. The law's penalties can increase when a violation results in injury, and local prosecutors have in some cases pursued criminal charges tied to Scott's Law infractions. Police and transportation officials maintain that the statute remains essential to reducing roadside crashes.
What drivers should know
Officials and local reporting keep coming back to the same basic message: slow down, move over, and give emergency scenes plenty of room. Troopers routinely deploy flares, cones, and automated alerts, but they note that those precautions cannot substitute for attentive driving at highway speeds. Local outlets and the agency's posts stress that compliance with Scott's Law is the clearest way to prevent more troopers and motorists from getting hurt on the shoulder, as Patch reported.
