Motorists who didn’t “steer clear” of a tow truck and police vehicle parked alongside of Route 309 in West Penn Township received warnings or citations.

West Penn Township Supervisor Glenn Hummel said the recent tow truck setup was staged as part of a state grant the township received to remind drivers of Pennsylvania’s “Steer Clear” law.

“It seems with the ‘Steer Clear’ law, a lot of people don’t know what it is,” Hummel said at Monday’s supervisors’ meeting. “So what they (police) did was they put a tow truck out, they put a police car out with the tow truck, and then they had somebody waiting down the road for people who did not steer clear. They got either warnings or citations.”

The Steer Clear Law, also known as the Move Over Law, requires drivers to move over to the adjacent lane or significantly reduce their speed when approaching an emergency response area. It includes situations with flashing lights from emergency vehicles, tow trucks or disabled vehicles displaying safety markings.

Hummel said that while viewing social media, he learned that people were “up in arms about the West Penn Township police who were down there, putting a ‘fake’ tow truck out there, just pulling people over for no reason.”

Hummel added that he received a number of phone calls from those who received violations.

“I explained to everyone the same thing. I’ll say this because it’s just my personality: I said to them, ‘If you got a ticket, you deserved it,’” Hummel said.

And on the very same day township police were stopping violators, Hummel said, a tow-truck driver was killed near Pittsburgh by a motorist who did not move to the adjacent lane.

Township police Chief Jason Lorah said police issued 28 citations in the 2-hour period.

“As a matter of a fact, yesterday we had an accident (that police responded to) and I almost got run over twice,” Lorah said. “One (driver) just smiled at me and kept on driving, didn’t change her rate and just waved at me.”

Lorah added that police aren’t out to punish drivers.

“Everybody in here has been stuck alongside the road, fire fighters and EMS,” he said. “I’ve had to hood jump already. It’s just really something that has to be brought up for awareness.”

Lorah apologized for the inconvenience, but Hummel said he was doing his job.

“It is definitely a problem. And yesterday, it was demonstrated once again,” Lorah said.