After a聽Taylor Garbage Services聽employee was struck and killed by a driver in Tioga County last year, a change to state law will require聽all vehicles to slow down and use caution around sanitation vehicles. An amendment to the “Move Over Law”聽was approved by the state legislature last week,聽seven months after聽27-year-old Sean Tilghman, of Endicott, was killed outside 3550 Pennsylvania Ave.聽in Apalachin.
Police聽say Donald Ulmer, of Little Meadows, Pennsylvania, struck Tilghman as he was聽standing behind a Taylor garbage collection truck unloading a bin. Under the new legislation, sometimes referred to as the “Slow Down Law,”聽sanitation or garbage trucks would be classified as “hazard vehicles” while engaged in collecting refuse on a public roadway. This would include them in the state’s already-existing “Move Over Law,” which in part requires vehicles to change lanes or slow down when encountering police or fire vehicles parked on the roadsides. The bill is expected to be signed into law by Gov. Andrew Cuomo, and could take聽effect as early as聽Nov. 1. “We truly believe and hope that this will save lives,”聽Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, said Friday outside Taylor Garbage’s Vestal facility on Old Vestal Road.
In the wake of the accident that killed Tilghman, Taylor Garbage representatives called a meeting of state and local legislators last November to discuss putting the new bill together. It passed聽the Senate and Assembly unanimously.
Elected officials,聽Taylor Garbage employees and others聽gathered Friday outside the Old Vestal Road facility to highlight the bill’s passage. “After the loss of one of our own … we knew something needed to happen and happen fast,” 聽said Jared Taylor, general manager of Taylor Garbage Services聽Inc., in a statement.
To read the full story, visit .