A patrol car sits on the shoulder ahead with its lights flashing and an officer standing beside the vehicle they have pulled over. What does the law require of you?

Why C is correct

Move-over rules exist because of a specific pattern: people working beside a stopped vehicle are struck and killed by passing traffic every year. The rule asks drivers to give up the lane adjacent to the stopped emergency vehicle, or where that is impossible because of road layout or surrounding traffic, to slow substantially instead. The reason the rule offers two options rather than one is that an unsafe lane change is worse than slowing — a driver swerving across a lane without looking has simply created a second emergency. Do whichever is safe, and do it early enough that nobody has to brake hard behind you.

Why the other options are wrong

A. Nothing special — passing in the nearest lane at the posted limit is fine

Passing at the limit in the adjacent lane is precisely the behaviour the law was written against. The person standing at the door of that patrol car is a hazard you are required to move away from.

B. Stop behind the patrol car until the officer waves you through

Stopping creates a fresh problem. A stationary vehicle in a through lane invites a rear-end collision and blocks the scene the responders are trying to work in.

D. Sound the horn so everyone knows you are passing

The horn communicates nothing useful and startles people already working in a position with almost no margin. They can see your car coming; what they need is space.

On the road

A tow operator is hooking up a car on the shoulder while the adjacent lane carries traffic at highway speed. He is doing nothing wrong and has no protection beyond the paint line. The law exists because no amount of care on his part changes that.

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