Safe Driving in New Jersey

Palisades car insurance, one of our carrier companies, performed a statewide poll that found 22% of NJ residents have no knowledge of the NJ law that mandates that motorists must stop — and remain stopped — for pedestrians in the crosswalk.

At van den Heuvel & Fountain, we value our safe (and violation-free!) drivers – so we’ve compiled a helpful list of three other overlooked traffic laws of which you should be aware:

1. Idling Stinks

New Jersey law requires all motorists to restrict idling to three minutes or less (N.J.A.C. 7:27).  Idling more than three minutes is unnecessary and harmful to your vehicle and your health.  Vehicle and property owners face fines of $250 to $1,000 for each violation of this law.

There are some specific situations in which a vehicle may idle for an extended times, such as when it is stuck in traffic, or at a drive-thru window.  See www.stopthesoot.org for a complete listing of exemptions.

 
2. Move over
New Jersey’s “Move Over” law requires that all motorists approaching a stationary, authorized emergency vehicle, tow truck, highway maintenance or other emergency service vehicle that is displaying a flashing, blinking or alternating red, blue, amber or tallow light, or any configuration of lights containing one of these colors, must change lanes, safety and traffic conditions permitting, into a lane not adjacent to the authorized vehicle.  If a lane change is impossible, prohibited by law or unsafe, the motorist must reduce speed of his vehicle to reasonable and proper speed, slower than the posted limit, and be prepared to stop if necessary.  Motorists who violate this law face a fine of not less than $100.

3. Safe Corridors

In order to improve highway safety, New Jersey initiated Safe Corridors Program in 2004.  The Safe Corridors law doubles fines on various state highways for various driving offenses, including speeding and aggressive driving.  Highways are designated for the program based on crash rates 50 percent over the state rate and 1,000 or more crashes reported over a three-year period.  A current list of Safe Corridor highways is available from the New Jersey Department of Transportation at www.nj.gov/transportation.

Brush up your knowledge of New Jersey driving regulations by downloading the New Jersey Driver Manual (from which these laws and their descriptions were taken) at http://www.state.nj.us/mvc/About/manuals.htm. 

Or check out our Facebook and Twitter feeds, where we periodically remind our readers of traffic rules and regulations.