The next time you see a police car pulled over to write a ticket, you'll need to remember a newly expanded law. Otherwise, you could be getting a ticket of your own.

PORTLAND, Ore. - The next time you see a police car pulled over to write a ticket, you'll need to remember a newly expanded law. Otherwise, you could be getting a ticket of your own.

Lawmakers in Salem have passed a few amendments to the existing "Move Over Law" which became law a few years ago. That law required motorists to move over into the next, further-away lane when a cop or emergency vehicle is pulled to the side of the road.

Motorists that can't move over are required to provide "as much room as possible" for the emergency vehicle and slow down. Slowing down is defined by state law as "reducing speed by at least 5 miles per hour below the posted speed limit."

The new amendments expand the moving/slowing requirement to motorists passing a) roadside assistance vehicles and b) tow trucks making pick ups. The amendments go into effect Jan. 1, 2010.

Failure to obey this law can cost drivers up to $360, according to the new fine schedule from the Oregon DMV. Offenders also would have a class B traffic violation, for "operation of an unsafe vehicle," on their driving record.

Officials say that many of the 700-plus deaths to officers in traffic incidents over the past 10 years were a result of "inattentive drivers" who crashed into the officers "at high speeds."

Have the new rules helped lower these traffic deaths? That's hard to say, said Lieutenant Ethan Wilson, assistant director of the patrol division for Oregon State Police, which issues tickets on state highways.

"Those instances were not really common, and they were statistically something that's hard to graph," Wilson said. "But, I have seen better compliance. Anecdotally, I see more and more people making an effort to either move over or try to slow down as awareness of this issue."

Related link: 

• Oregon Department of Transportation fact sheet on the subject