COLLINSVILLE, Ill. (KMOX) - You might be seeing more "two squad car" traffic stops along Illinois highways and interstates.
Collinsville-based trooper Josh Korando says Illinois State Police are stepping up enforcement of the state's "Move Over Law," which requires drivers to leave the right hand lane of traffic open when there's police activity on the roadside.
He says the back-up trooper will be watching for violators, "There's no number on it. There's nothing about this that says we are going out here trying to bump up our ticket numbers. We just want compliance. We want people to obey this law, because for us it is a matter of life and death."
More than ten Illinois State Police squad cars have been struck on roadsides this year, and one trooper was killed.
That brought back painful memories for Korando, who once attended a funeral for a police academy buddy struck and killed in the line of duty, "When you go to one for a classmate, somebody you knew personally, somebody you spent six months of your life with, it really really hits home. This is something extremely important to me, personally."