Position. Protect. Clear.

OFFICER SAFETY BULLETIN

Traffic Is Still a Threat After the Stop

The emergency lights may be on, but the lane remains active. Approaching motorists may be distracted, fatigued, impaired, confused by multiple light sources, or following a vehicle that blocks their view until the last seconds. A shoulder, patrol car, reflective vest, or Move Over law reduces risk only when officers also create and continuously manage a protected workspace.

Before stepping out, read the roadway as deliberately as the vehicle and its occupants. Identify traffic speed and direction, shoulder width, curves or hillcrests, weather, lighting, adjacent barriers, likely vehicle paths, and an escape route. Decide whether the contact can be moved. When it cannot, create space between traffic and people on foot.

Today's Officer Safety Focus

• Stop far enough behind the involved vehicle to create working room and a recovery path, while keeping the patrol vehicle positioned to provide warning and protection consistent with training and conditions.
• Before opening the door, identify the safest exit side, approach path, and place to move if an approaching vehicle enters the workspace.
• Avoid standing between vehicles, in a live lane, or at the roadway edge longer than the task requires.
• Control occupants early. Direct them to remain in a safer location unless movement is necessary, then explain exactly where and how to move.
• Reassess after every arrival. A second patrol unit, fire apparatus, ambulance, or tow truck can improve protection or create new sightline, staging, and escape problems.

TACTICAL REMINDER

Build the Buffer Before Contact

Use a short roadway size-up before the contact consumes your attention:

• Upstream threat: What can strike the scene, from what direction, and how much time will you have to react?
• Vehicle position: Is the patrol vehicle creating useful separation and warning without unnecessarily trapping another responder or blocking an EMS exit?
• Approach and escape: Which side offers the better approach under current traffic, occupant, terrain, and visibility conditions? Where will you move if the lane is breached?
• Lighting and roles: Use required warning equipment without creating unnecessary glare. Assign one officer to the contact and another to traffic, occupants, radio, or scene monitoring when staffing permits.
• Duration: Complete the necessary work, move nonessential activity off the roadway, and end exposure as soon as the mission allows.

For traffic incidents, Federal Highway Administration guidance emphasizes safe vehicle positioning, scene safety, traffic management, communication, and safe, quick clearance. The exact configuration must follow the roadway, incident, available equipment, training, and agency policy; no single parking angle substitutes for a deliberate size-up.

NATIONAL & TEXAS LAW-ENFORCEMENT UPDATE

NTSB - A Patrol Car Was Struck Despite Active Warning Lights

ACTUAL INCIDENT - Event date and location: On July 1, 2020, at approximately 9:50 a.m., on westbound Interstate 526 at the Don N. Holt Bridge near North Charleston, South Carolina, a pickup truck towing an unladen trailer struck the rear of a marked patrol car that was stopped behind a disabled SUV. The impact pushed the patrol car into a sheriff's deputy and then into the disabled vehicle. The deputy sustained serious injuries. The pickup continued forward and struck a tow-truck operator, who was fatally injured. Source-publication date: May 31, 2022.

The NTSB reported that the patrol car's warning lights were activated, an overhead sign warned of a blocked lane, visibility was clear, and the pickup was traveling about 49 mph at impact with no evidence of braking. Warning systems can fail at the driver; every person and task inside the work area needs protection, an escape plan, and the shortest reasonable exposure.

Official source: National Transportation Safety Board, Highway Investigation Report HIR-22/04, May 31, 2022. https://www.ntsb.gov/investigations/AccidentReports/Reports/HIR2204.pdf

FHWA - Positioning Is Part of a Coordinated System

Federal Highway Administration Traffic Incident Management guidance treats scene size-up, safe vehicle positioning, scene safety, command, traffic management, and clearance as one coordinated response. FHWA also cautions that excessive emergency lighting at night can confuse motorists and degrade scene safety.

Official sources: Federal Highway Administration, Introduction to Traffic Incident Management, Publication No. FHWA-HOP-22-14 (2022), and current National TIM Responder Training materials, verified October 9, 2026. https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/tim/docs/IntroductiontoTIM_v2_508.pdf https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/tim/training/ https://ops.fhwa.dot.gov/tim/about/rms.htm

Texas - Move Over or Slow Down Is a Motorist Duty, Not a Safety Plan

Texas Transportation Code Section 545.157 requires an approaching driver to move out of the lane closest to certain stopped vehicles with activated warning signals when safe, or slow as directed. TxDOT states that a driver who cannot safely change lanes must slow to 20 mph below the posted speed, or to 5 mph when the limit is 25 mph or less. Effective September 1, 2025, the law also covers animal-control and parking-enforcement vehicles. This motorist duty does not replace protective positioning or a plan for noncompliance.

Official sources: Texas Transportation Code Section 545.157 and TxDOT, Move Over or Slow Down, current through October 9, 2026. https://statutes.capitol.texas.gov/GetStatute.aspx?Code=TN&Value=545.157 https://www.txdot.gov/safety/traffic-safety-campaigns/move-over-or-slow-down.html

LEADERSHIP & PROFESSIONAL CHARACTER

Create Margin for the People Doing the Work

Servant-minded leadership at a roadside scene is practical. The experienced officer does not merely say, "Watch traffic." The officer creates the conditions that allow someone else to work safely: improves the vehicle position, moves a civilian out of the exposure, takes the traffic role, stages an arriving unit where it helps, protects the ambulance exit, or asks whether the contact can be relocated.

Today's leadership challenge

• On one roadside contact this shift, verbalize the upstream threat, protected area, and escape route before leaving the patrol vehicle.
• When another unit arrives, assign a useful role instead of allowing the scene to collect vehicles and people without a plan.
• If the scene changes, announce the change: "Tow truck arriving - keep the right side open," or "Traffic is backing over the hill - we need upstream warning."
• After the contact, ask one question: Did our vehicle placement and role assignment create real protection, or only the appearance of it?

ROLL CALL DISCUSSION

Scenario & discussion

The Stop Is Routine Until the Workspace Changes

Training scenario: At 0215 hours during light rain, an officer stops a sedan on the narrow right shoulder of a divided highway posted at 70 mph. The shoulder ends approximately 200 feet ahead at a bridge barrier. The patrol car is directly behind the sedan with emergency lights activated. The driver exits and begins walking toward the patrol car. A second unit arrives and stops beside the first patrol car, partially blocking the adjacent lane. A tow truck approaches from behind. Its driver asks where to stage. Traffic is beginning to stack beyond a curve, and glare from rain and emergency lighting makes vehicle speed difficult to judge.

Discuss

• Which hazards require immediate correction before anyone continues the enforcement or towing task?
• Can the sedan, patrol units, or tow truck be relocated? What legal, tactical, and mechanical facts control that decision?
• Where is the protected work area, and where are the escape routes for each person?
• Who should control the driver, monitor upstream traffic, communicate by radio, and direct the tow truck?
• What lighting and vehicle-position changes could improve warning without increasing confusion or trapping an ambulance or tow vehicle?
• What facts should be documented if the officer delays, relocates, blocks a lane, directs an occupant to move, or ends the stop early because of roadway danger?

LEGAL WRITING & COURTROOM READINESS

Explain the Roadway Decision, Not Merely the Final Location

Roadside decisions are often judged later from diagrams, video, photographs, collision evidence, and testimony. A complete report gives the reader the officer's contemporaneous view: traffic speed and density, road alignment, lane and shoulder width, lighting and weather, vehicle positions, activated warning equipment, pedestrian locations, visibility limits, escape routes, arrival sequence, instructions, near strikes, relocations, and the reason for any lane closure or departure from a preferred position.

Texas's Move Over or Slow Down law describes the approaching motorist's obligation. It does not prove that the officer's workspace was safe, that a particular position was required, or that a driver actually complied. Distinguish the statute, agency policy, training, and the officer's fact-specific safety judgment.

Weak articulation

"I parked behind the vehicle with my emergency lights on and completed the stop."

Stronger articulation

"At 0215 hours, I stopped the sedan on the right shoulder of the northbound highway approximately 200 feet before the bridge barrier. The posted speed was 70 mph. Light rain and roadway spray reduced contrast, and northbound vehicles were approaching from a right-hand curve. I positioned my marked patrol vehicle behind the sedan with the emergency warning equipment activated and left space between the vehicles for movement. Before exiting, I identified the passenger side as the safer approach and the area beyond the guardrail break as my escape route.

When a backup unit stopped beside my patrol vehicle and entered the right travel lane, I directed that officer to reposition upstream and provide traffic warning. I then instructed the sedan driver to remain inside the vehicle until the tow truck was staged."

Courtroom Readiness

Expect precise questions: Why did you choose that stopping location? Could the contact be moved? What hazards were visible when you arrived? What changed? Which warning equipment was operating? Where were you standing? What escape route had you identified? Who directed the arriving units? How long were people exposed to traffic? Did the approaching driver have an unobstructed view? What did you personally observe rather than learn later from video or another officer? Answer from personal knowledge, distinguish estimates from measurements, and explain the purpose behind each safety decision.

THREE TAKEAWAYS

End-of-Brief Reinforcement

1. Build the buffer before contact. Read the roadway, place the patrol vehicle deliberately, choose the approach, and identify an escape route before the enforcement task narrows your attention.
2. Keep the workspace active. Control people and arriving resources, monitor upstream traffic, and change positioning, lighting, or roles when the scene changes.
3. Clear and articulate. End unnecessary exposure promptly and document the conditions, decisions, instructions, timing, and reasons that shaped the roadside plan.

"Emergency lights announce the scene. Disciplined positioning protects it."