Move Over law started in SC. Officials want stronger law.

To some, it is merely common sense to provide space for emergency vehicles and personnel working on the side of the road. James Garcia, a paramedic who was hit on a Lexington highway one cold day in January 1994, thought so.

Two years later, due to the unfortunate collision that kept Garcia out of work for 45 days — and a dispute over liability for the crash — South Carolina became the first state to establish a “Move Over” law .

But in 1994, S.C. Highway Patrol officials told Garcia that he’d been “100 percent at fault for blocking (the motorist’s) lane,” according to an interview with The Post and Courier in 2008 . “You’ve got to be kidding me. I ought to be able to stand in the road and do my job,” he’d responded.

Nearly three decades have passed since the legislation requiring m