JEFFERSON CITY – The Missouri Department of Transportation and its partners want to remind motorists to move over for first responders during next week’s Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week.

Every minute of every day emergency responders across Missouri work tirelessly to help save lives at the scene of traffic incidents.  Across the country every year hundreds of emergency responders representing fire, law enforcement, emergency medical services, towing and transportation agencies are struck and either injured or killed while responding. The Federal Highway Administration has declared Nov. 14-18, 2016, as the first national Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week. MoDOT and its partners, including the Missouri State Highway Patrol, remind motorists to move over for any vehicle with flashing lights on the highway.

MoDOT and the State Patrol work every day to maintain a safe and reliable transportation system for Missourians. Traffic incidents on the roads jeopardize that and therefore MoDOT’s emergency response crews work to keep our system moving every day. In an average month, MoDOT emergency crews respond to 5,500 traffic incidents.

“MoDOT and its partners in law enforcement, fire, EMS and the tow industry work together to clear incidents but we need the help of motorists,” said MoDOT Chief Engineer Ed Hassinger. “Move over when you see responders on the road and give them extra space to work. They are out there trying to clear the road for you so give them space to work.”

Missouri’s Move Over law requires drivers to change lanes when approaching MoDOT vehicles, law enforcement vehicles and any other emergency vehicle with lights flashing. If drivers can’t change lanes safely, they must slow down as they pass the emergency vehicles.

“Every day, first responders spend countless hours along the side of Missouri’s busiest highways,” said Colonel J. Bret Johnson, superintendent of the Missouri State Highway Patrol. “Whether writing a ticket, investigating a crash, or helping a stranded motorist, they are dangerously close to passing traffic. Move over, and give them some room. Remember their safety is in your hands.”

In the past ten years, MoDOT has had three emergency response employees killed while working incidents on the road. During about the same time period, the Missouri State Highway Patrol has had three troopers killed and several others seriously injured in roadside incidents. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the total number of police-reported traffic crashes increased by 3.8 percent from 2014 to 2015. Traffic incident fatalities have increased 7.2 percent, which is the largest percentage increase in nearly 50 years. Traffic incidents are the number one case of death for police officers and EMS responders nationwide.

“When you see lights, vests, reflectors, move over and slow down. Give us room to work,” said Hassinger. “We’ve got your back. Do you have ours?”

For more information on the Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week, please visit the national website or MoDOT’s website at modot.org.

(Missourinet) – With Missouri’s archery deer-hunting season underway and firearms season coming up, a prominent doctor is urging for safety precautions.

About half a million Missourians deer hunt each year. Many use elevated tree stands to provide an unobstructed view. Among the avid hunters is Dr. Jacob Quick, who also happens to be a surgeon at the University of Missouri Trauma Center in Columbia.

His facility sees about 40 patients a year f

or hunting related injuries, mostly due to falls from tree stands. He says the number is especially alarming. “These are patients that are injured enough to come to a trauma center” said Quick. These are patients that are seriously injured that require immediate operations that have the need for immediate hemorrhage control, people that are paralyzed, bad brain injuries and all that kind of thing. So it’s a big deal to have that many people injured in central Missouri just from falling out of a tree stand.”

Outside of the Columbia facility, the only other level one trauma center equipped to handle such injuries outside of the urban centers of St. Louis and Kansas City is in Springfield. Quick says most deer hunting injuries are the result of falls from tree stands, not from fire-arms as is commonly thought. He says the other major misconception is that full body harnesses are not necessary while in a stand.

Quick notes the wounds from tree stand falls can be quite severe. “We’ve had quite a few that required emergency surgery, essentially as soon as they got here. We took them directly to the operating room for bleeding control, where these patients were essentially bleeding to death in their chest and their abdomen, just from falls.”

Quick says the elements present in a remote location in the woods can contribute to the severity of injuries. “There’s a lot of things on the way down (during tree stand falls) when you’re talking about being in the woods, broken sticks, your own equipment, those sorts of things, that can also cause penetrating injuries, which we’ve seen to be devastating, and causing near death experiences for these patients.”

He says a lot of injuries can be avoided by using common sense measures, such as wearing a full body harness while perched in a tree stand. Quick says a large majority of deer hunters use tree stands, possibly as many as 75 percent.

Mots deer hunting in Missouri occurs during the short fire arm season, which takes place between November 12th and 22nd. Joe Jerek with the Missouri Conservation Department says the busiest days are the first two, which are a Saturday and Sunday.