OFF THE WIRE
Brenna Donnelly
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) -- Indiana State Police troopers say almost
everyone they've pulled over in violation of the Indiana Left Lane Law
told them they didn't know it was illegal to drive slower than traffic
in the left hand lane.
The measure went into effect in 2015 and
states that drivers traveling in the left lane of a road with more than
one lane must move to the right if there's a car behind them moving
faster, even if the car in the left lane is going at or above the speed
limit. Some have called it the "Slowpoke Law," referring to the slow
drivers plugging up the passing lane.
"It's really annoying
because it slows everybody down," said Tracey Everett, a driver in
Indianapolis. "Especially when you're trying to get to work, get home
from work. Super frustrating."
"I feel like it causes the
drivers in the other lanes to speed up and it gets more dangerous as a
result," added Courtney Burks, also an Indianapolis driver.
Indiana
State Police troopers aren't enforcing polite driving when they pull
over a slow left-lane driver; they say they're making roads safer.
"If
they can't get by in the left lane, they're going to weave in and out,
over to the center lane, to the right lane, back to left lane and that
by itself creates substantial hazards for everyone else on the road,"
said Sergeant John Perrine with ISP.
A ticket for violating the
Left Lane Law will cost between $150-200, according to Perrine. He said
on average, ISP hands out 100 Left Lane Law tickets per year, and 1,500
warnings.
"More importantly, we want to educate people about the
importance of staying out of that left lane. So the vast majority of the
stops we've made over the last few years have resulted in warnings,"
said Perrine.
Captain Erv Faulk with ISP says in his experience,
the law has helped him flag distracted or impaired drivers. He described
an instance on I-70 when he pulled over a slow left lane driver who was
backing up traffic.
"I stop him, find out he's impaired, he's
been drinking, he's trying to focus on the road. He doesn't want to get
in those right two lanes," said Captain Faulk. " You end up having the
traffic backed up, people getting mad."
"People just need to learn," said Dan Bookout, a driver in Indianapolis. "Stay out of the left lane unless you're passing."
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