Traffic Incident Management Quick Clearance Laws: A National Review of Best Practices

Constituting “Quick Clearance Laws,” three types of general legislation — Move Over, Driver Removal, and Authority Removal laws – support concurrent Quick Clearance operations intended to enhance motorist and responder safety, as well as reduce ongestion and delay. Although a number of States currently have one or more of these laws in place, observed variability in the existence, wording, and coverage of Quick Clearance Laws challenges further implementation. The intent of this investigation was to better support Quick Clearance Law implementation efforts by better preparing States to respond to questions regarding the necessity of Quick Clearance legislation and identifying examples from existing State Move Over, Driver Removal, and Authority Removal legislation that serve to both support and challenge successful incident management operations. Through this investigation,
carefully crafted statutory content and language that best support Quick Clearance objectives, and agency/industry partnerships that provide demonstrated, united support for safe, Quick Clearance
objectives and related legislation were observed to be key factors supporting implementation of Quick Clearance Laws. This report includes: (1) a description of the role and relevance of Quick Clearance Laws in the broader traffic incident management context; (2) a detailed review of the purpose and intent, model language, observed content trends and anomalies, and implementation challenges and resolutions for Move Over, Driver Removal, and Authority Removal laws including specific examples from State legislation; and (3) concluding remarks and proposed strategies for implementation, including beneficial synergy resulting from combined Quick Clearance Law implementation.