Changes to Alberta’s Traffic Safety Act will take effect Sept. 1, 2023. And, while they mean drivers will have to slow down when passing all roadside workers, they apply only to the closest lane of traffic, not all lanes of traffic, which is what the province had previously said it was planning for.
Starting in September, drivers in the lane closest to any roadside worker vehicle stopped on the side of the road with lights flashing must reduce their travelling speed to 60 km/h or the posted speed limit, whichever is lower.
Drivers must also move over to the far lane if it’s safe and reasonably allow other drivers to move over too.
Previously, only first responders and tow truck drivers were protected under the Traffic Safety Act. It will now apply to all roadside workers, including police, fire, EMS, tow truck operators, highway maintenance workers and snowplow operators.
However, when the government initially announced the changes to Bill 5, they were set to include requirements that drivers in all lanes going in the same direction slow down.
Those changes were supposed to come into effect March 1, 2023, but the province delayed their implementation.
“We absolutely welcome and applaud the addition of other roadside workers to Alberta’s ‘slow down move over’ framework,” said Jeff Kasbrick, vice president of advocacy the Alberta Motor Association. “Safety is not a zero-sum game and we all benefit when we’re expanding safety for all who call the roadside their office.
“Unfortunately, we are welcoming them to a ‘slow down move over’ framework which is not what was committed to and which is not as robust as it actually could be.
“In March of 2020, the Alberta legislature unanimously passed Bill 5, (with) support from all parties, that included important provisions around expanding Alberta’s ‘slow down move over’ law to include all lanes of travel in the same direction as well as single-lane undivided highways,” he said.
“Government is moving back from its commitment and this is not what was promised to Alberta’s essential tow operators, first responders, as well as the roadside workers who are included in today’s expanded framework,” Kasbrick said.
Members of the transportation industry, including the Alberta Motor Association (AMA), have been pushing for the province to expand the highway safety rules for years.
The AMA did not attend Tuesday’s news conference.
Transportation Minister Devin Dreeshen said the lane requirement was changed to just one lane because it made more sense.
“When there’s two or three semis between you and that roadside worker, how is everybody in five lanes going to magically slow down to 60 km/h while you’re passing that roadside worker?
“A common sense change of: if you’re right beside the workers on the side of the road, you’re going 60 km/h or whatever the posted speed limit is, if it’s lower. But in this case, everybody else can go 110 (km/h) in lanes two, three, four and five on Highway 2, but right beside where the workers are working, they’ll go down to 60 km/h.”
But those in the industry say requiring only one lane to slow down actually creates more risk.
“That just leaves an opportunity to have a secondary collision,” said Don Getschel, president of the Towing & Recovery Association of Alberta.
“If you’re in the number one lane, slowing down, and you move to go into the number two lane and you’re doing 60 km/h and the number two lane is doing 120 km/h, there’s a chance for disaster.
“That’s what I was hoping this new law would prevent,” Getschel said.
He said the association’s last communication from the government was in May.
“As far as I knew, everything was moving forward just as announced.
“Province-wide, we’re all kind of in shock as to why this change was made. They legislated that this was going to happen and in the final hour they made a change.
“It’s disappointing… It leaves us feeling uneasy. It leaves us feeling like the government is going to do whatever they want… A lot of our members are scared they might lose the use of the blue lights.”
Getschel said there was supposed to be an education campaign and increased enforcement.
“It just feels like we got kind of brushed aside and forgotten. That’s the feeling. We were excited for this change. We were hoping this change would make it safer for our operators. And now that change is gone.
“Why was this OK in March and not in September? Why did they push it back? What was the reason? Are they doing more research? Because they never shared that.”
The initial proposal also saw fines for passing an emergency vehicle on the side of the road doubling.
When the change takes effect Sept. 1, fines and demerits ($243 or $324 and three demerit points) will be applied “for unsafe behaviours when passing roadside workers and snowplows,” the province said in a news release Tuesday.
Until now, Alberta was one of only two provinces without so-called “move over” legislation.
“These new measures will undoubtedly protect our highway maintenance and snowplow crews,” said Fred Desjarlais, president and CEO of Volker Stevin Canada.
“Slowing down when passing roadside workers will be a minor impact on drivers that has a tremendous effect on the safety of our workforce.
“No matter the season, our crews strive to get the travelling public home safely, and these changes ensure our crews will get home safely too.”
Between 2014 and 2018, there were 2,229 injuries involving workers being struck by a vehicle, according to Alberta’s Workers’ Compensation Board (WCB).
Between March 2018 and March 2021, there were approximately 130 collisions involving snowplows contracted by Transportation and Economic Corridors.
During the winter of 2022-23, there were 37 collisions involving a government-contracted snowplow.
The AMA’s towing numbers show that since December 2019, that company on its own recorded 18 serious incidents at the roadside as well as 39 “very close calls.”
“While we provide training to employees so they can work safely around traffic, we rely on drivers to do their part to slow and make space for workers and machinery,” said Ronald Glen, CEO of the Alberta Roadbuilders and Heavy Construction Association.
“ARHCA thanks all members of the legislature who supported Bill 5 for their concern for our employees’ lives.”
Kasbrick said AMA will continue to advocate for the all-lane speed changes and is hopeful government will listen.
“This is something that we’re unwavering in our commitment to,” he said. “Roadside safety is not something that we take casually.
“These are our employees but they are people’s moms and dads and aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters. We absolutely owe it to our essential tow operators and other first responders… to continue to advance and raise how important this issue is.”
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