(WBBM NEWSRADIO) - Two Illinois highway drivers are under investigation for violating the state’s “Scott’s Law,” in two separate crashes on Tuesday, injuring an Illinois state trooper and killing two construction workers.
The fatal accident happened Tuesday morning around 8 a.m. near the Illinois-Iowa border. Illinois State Police said the construction workers from Iowa were beginning to place construction barrels for a work zone along U.S. Route 34’s Great River Bridge when they were struck and killed by a 2016 Mazda CX5 traveling westbound. The workers’ pickup truck and trailer had its yellow construction lights on when they were hit, ISP said.
The workers were identified as 20-year-old Pearson Franklin of New London, Iowa, and 35-year-old Andrew Whitcomb of Burnside, Illinois, state police said.
The driver of Mazda, 21-year-old Emily Johnson, suffered minor injuries. She was cited by ISP for violating Scott’s Law, which includes improper passing of a stationary emergency vehicle, improper use of electronic communication device, and failure to reduce speed to avoid a crash.
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About a half hour earlier in Effingham, on the ramp from U.S. Route 45 to I-57 southbound, a state trooper was struck while investigating a traffic crash. ISP said the trooper was situated on the right shoulder, and his squad car, with its emergency lights turned on, was parked behind a semi. The trooper was questioning the driver of a semi earlier involved in a hit-and-run crash. State police said the trooper was on the driver’s side, standing partially in the cab of the semi when he was hit by a passing semi. The trooper was sent to an area hospital with non-life threatening injuries and has since been released, ISP said.
The driver of the semi that struck the trooper, 42-year-old Eric Trevino from Texas, was cited by ISP for violating Scott’s Law.
State police said this was the 19th time a state trooper’s squad car had been hit and the eighth instance of a trooper getting hurt because a driver violated Scott’s Law or otherwise known as the “Move Over Law.” According to ISP, the law states drivers must slow down and move over whenever he or she approaches an emergency vehicle, or any vehicle with their emergency or hazard lights activated.
First time violators of Scott’s Law are fined at a minimum of $250, and in some instances that fine could exceed $10,000. If the accident results in injury to another person, the driver’s license will be suspended anywhere between six months and two years.
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