Scott’s Law: Remembering Ross Booker

[TowNews]

In wake of tow-truck driver's death, 'education is going to be huge' on move-over law

 

URBANA — For more than two years, radio and television advertisements for Jim Hampton’s towing business have included a message asking drivers to move over when they see flashing lights.

 

Last weekend, the message proved sadly ineffective for his work family.

 

“This is the first tow-truck operator I know killed in the line of duty,” Hampton, owner of Tatman’s Towing in Urbana, said of his part-time employee, Ross Booker, 20.

 

Mr. Booker was laid to rest Saturday, honored in a moving procession led by his co-workers and joined by dozens of other tow-truck operators, firefighters and police that started in Savoy at 10 a.m. and went northeast about 18 miles to the Stanton Friends Cemetery north of his hometown of St. Joseph.

 

Approximately 70 vehicles, mostly tow trucks, from as near as Champaign and Tuscola and as far as Newton, Greenup, Decatur, Springfield, Tilton, Danville and Bloomington joined in the tribute.

 

“We all want to go home to our families,” said Wade Hollenbeck, one of five drivers from Tuscola Pro who braved Saturday’s below-zero wind chill to make a point.

 

“We came to show our respect and we just want to bring awareness to the slow-down campaign,” said Dion Smith of Bloomington, who came with his wife in a Maurer Wrecker Service vehicle. “It seems like it’s happening more and more.”

 

About 9 p.m. March 5, Mr. Booker was cleaning up what was left from a two-vehicle accident on Neil Street near Windsor Road when a 16-year-old boy from Tolono who was driving south hit him.

 

A week later, his grief-stricken boss was recalling Mr. Booker’s smile and their friendly banter as he prepared to lead the parade.

 

“All these kids are my kids,” Hampton, 53, said of his 15 employees. “We have safety equipment, we wear high-visibility uniforms. I tell my people: ‘Keep watching over your shoulder, protect yourself. Use the trucks to block if you feel like you need more blocking.’ I’d rather replace a truck than a team member.

 

“We need to do more, get in touch with lawmakers and make sure we do something different,” said the 30-year veteran of the towing business who has owned Tatman’s for 16 years. “When tragedies like this happen, people jump on the bandwagon, but once it fades and people go on about their lives, people start forgetting. We need to keep this campaign going.”

 

 

Illinois lawmakers did do something about it 20 years ago. They passed “Scott’s Law,” named for a Chicago Fire Department lieutenant who was hit and killed by a passing motorist while he worked at an accident scene. The legislation calls for drivers to move over and slow down when they see emergency lights flashing.

 

About five years ago, the law was beefed up to apply to all vehicles with flashing lights, including commercial trucks and cars, not just police cars or ambulances.

 

Hampton wonders if more can’t be done.

 

“Part of the problem I’m seeing is it says slow down and move over, but there are no specifics on what that means.

 

“If they do slow down to 20, is that enough? If somebody is driving down the road and didn’t see (a vehicle with flashing lights) because of the 18-wheeler in front of them, did they have the opportunity to move over?

 

There’s a lot of what-ifs in this law.”

 

Not having all the answers, the one thing Hampton knows for certain is that, just like with drunken or distracted driving, people need to be reminded about watching out for first responders.

 

Repeatedly.

 

“I believe education is going to be huge. You would think common sense would prevail here but people … are not thinking about this and moving over,” he observed.

 

Hampton said on the night Mr. Booker was hit, two of his employees were on the call.

 

“We had the intersection blocked and people were driving past barricades to get where they are going. That tells me they don’t care. It’s very frustrating,” he said.

 

He’d like to see more emphasis placed on first responder safety with brand new drivers and the written driver’s test administered by the Secretary of State to have a specific question about Scott’s Law.

 

“If you have 100 percent on everything else and you fail that one, you have to retake the test until you know. Too many people are dying from this,” he said.

 

Late last month, Illinois State Police said nine of their squad cars had been struck and four troopers injured statewide in the first two months of 2022.

 

In Champaign County, there have been 29 tickets written for the offense through March 11, all but four of those by Illinois State troopers. Two were written in Champaign and two in Urbana.

 

While any violations of Scott’s Law could be considered too many, the number of tickets written for that offense over the previous four years in Champaign County represented 1.5 percent or fewer of the total traffic tickets prosecuted.

 

There were 159 in 2021, 133 in 2020, 278 in 2019, and 54 in 2018, according to records compiled by State’s Attorney Julia Rietz.

 

The offense is punishable by a fine of $250 to $10,000 for a first offense but if there is injury or death involved, it is a Class 4 felony, punishable by a fine and penalties ranging from probation to one to three years in prison.

 

To try to get through to folks, Hampton has enlisted the aid of Josh Henson, general manager for Adams Outdoor Advertising in Champaign.

 

On Saturday, Henson launched a digital billboard public-service announcement in tribute to Mr. Booker that will be featured on billboards on Neil Street in Champaign near St. Mary’s Road and on University Avenue on the side of the Latitude apartment building near Fifth Street.

 

“What better place than when people are out driving to see it on an ongoing basis,” Henson said. “We are committed to running that as long as we can to avoid this happening again.

 

“When I’m thinking about public-service announcements, I don’t want to take advertising funds from an organization that would otherwise use them to help those in need,” he said, adding that the move-over message is important enough to keep it in the company’s ongoing rotation of public-service announcements “It feels just like something we should do. It’s two families impacted forever.”

 

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