California's 2026 Move Over Law: What AB 390 Changed for Everyone on the Shoulder

A flat tire used to put you in a strange legal gap. If a police cruiser stopped on the shoulder of Highway 50, every passing driver owed it a full lane of space or a slower speed. If you stopped in the same spot with your hazards blinking, passing drivers owed you nothing — legally speaking.

That gap closed on January 1, 2026. Under Assembly Bill 390, California's slow down, move over law now protects any stopped vehicle displaying hazard lights or roadside warning devices — including ordinary drivers dealing with a breakdown or a blowout.

For most drivers, it is a traffic rule with a modest fine attached. For anyone struck while stranded on the shoulder, it's a statutory duty that can make or break an injury claim.

What the California Move Over Law Requires in 2026

The rule lives in Vehicle Code section 21809. When you're approaching a stopped vehicle on the shoulder — an emergency vehicle with its lights on, a tow truck or highway maintenance vehicle flashing amber, or now any vehicle displaying hazard lights, cones, flares, or reflective devices — you must approach with caution and do one of two things before passing in the adjacent lane: move over into a lane that isn't next to the stopped vehicle if you can do so safely and legally, or slow to a speed that's reasonable and prudent for the weather, road, and traffic conditions.

Together, those two options make up the California move over law that 2026 drivers are required to follow. Doing neither is a violation.

The statute applies on any “highway,” a term California's Vehicle Code defines broadly enough to cover public streets and roads generally, not just freeways. There's one built-in exception: the duty doesn't apply when the stopped vehicle isn't adjacent to the roadway or sits behind a protective physical barrier.

Here's the change at a glance:

You can read the full chaptered text of AB 390 on the Legislature's website.

What Changed Under AB 390

California has had a move over law for years, but its protection depended on what was stopped rather than how dangerous the situation was. A tow truck operator got a legal buffer. The family whose minivan the tow truck was coming to rescue did not.

Assembly Bill 390, authored by Assemblymember Lori Wilson and sponsored by AAA, fixed that asymmetry. It passed both chambers without a single no vote and was signed by Governor Newsom on July 28, 2025, taking effect January 1, 2026. The bill extended protection from Caltrans crews to all marked highway maintenance vehicles — county, city, and contractor crews included — and, far more consequentially, to any stationary vehicle displaying hazard lights or another warning device.

The timing wasn't arbitrary. Roadside deaths in California rose nearly 77% between 2014 and 2023, according to the AAA Foundation's analysis of federal crash data. Under AB 390, California joins more than two dozen other states that already extend move-over protection to every stopped vehicle, not just official ones. The California Highway Patrol lists it among the public-safety laws that took effect in 2026.

Penalties for Violating the Move Over Law

Here is where a lot of the coverage gets it wrong, so let's go straight to the statute. Vehicle Code section 21809(b) makes a violation an infraction with a base fine of no more than $50. California's court assessments and fees then multiply that base, so the actual ticket lands around $230 to $240 in most counties, plus a point on your DMV record as a moving violation, which follows you into your insurance pricing for years.

You'll see claims of fines “up to $1,000” floating around news reports on the new law. That figure doesn't appear in section 21809 itself; it seems to conflate California's rule with other states' penalties.

But honestly, the ticket was never the point. The real exposure for a driver who blows past a stranded vehicle isn't a $238 fine — it's what happens in a civil courtroom if someone on that shoulder gets hurt.

How an AB 390 Violation Helps Prove Negligence If You're Hit on the Shoulder

This is the part of the new law that matters most to our clients, and it comes down to a doctrine called negligence per se. Under Evidence Code section 669, a driver who violates a safety statute is presumed negligent when the violation causes the kind of harm the statute was written to prevent, to a person the statute was written to protect.

A shoulder crash fits that test cleanly. A stranded motorist beside a disabled car with its flashers on is exactly the person the Legislature set out to protect, and being struck by passing traffic is exactly the harm the law targets. When a driver who neither moved over nor slowed down causes that harm, the violation becomes the backbone of the injury case — and the burden shifts to that driver to explain why ignoring the statute was reasonable.

Before 2026, an ordinary driver hit while stopped on the shoulder in California couldn't invoke section 21809 at all — the statute didn't cover them, so attorneys built these cases from general principles like the basic speed law and unsafe passing. Those arguments still work. But now a specific statutory duty is owed directly to you, and that changes the posture of the entire claim.

The evidence that proves the violation is time-sensitive: whether your hazard lights were on (dashcam footage, vehicle data, witness statements, the CHP report), whether the adjacent lane was open, and how fast the driver was going. A CHP citation strengthens the case but isn't required — a civil claim can prove the violation on its own evidence.

Expect the insurer to push back with the barrier exception, an argument that your flashers weren't on, or a claim that you contributed by where you stopped or stood. California's pure comparative fault system means those arguments can reduce a recovery, but they don't erase one.

What to Do If You're Hit Roadside on Highway 50 or I-80

The Sacramento region's two major corridors — Highway 50 through Folsom and El Dorado Hills, and I-80 through Roseville toward the Sierra — combine everything this law was written for: commuter speeds, narrow shoulders, heavy traffic. If a passing driver hits you while you're stopped, what you do in the first hour matters.

Get out of the traffic zone first. Behind the guardrail, up the embankment, away from the traffic side of your vehicle. The worst roadside injuries happen to people standing between two stopped cars or beside the driver's side.

Call 911 and get a CHP report. Crashes on these corridors fall to the California Highway Patrol, and the officer's report will document vehicle positions and whether your hazards were on — often the single most important fact in an AB 390 claim.

Document while the scene is fresh. Photograph your vehicle's position, the flashers, debris, skid marks, and the nearest exit or mile marker. Get witness names and numbers before they drive off.

Preserve the electronics. Save your own dashcam footage immediately. An attorney can also send a preservation letter for the other driver's dashcam and vehicle event data before it's overwritten — evidence that often settles the moved-over-or-didn't question definitively.

See a doctor the same day. A gap between the crash and your first treatment is the insurer's favorite argument that you weren't really hurt.

Be careful with the insurance calls. Skip the recorded statement until you've had advice. And remember that the at-fault driver may carry only California's minimum coverage — even the new 30/60/15 limits fall well short of serious-injury costs — so identifying every available policy, including your own underinsured motorist coverage, needs to happen early.

The Bottom Line

For decades, California's slow down, move over law drew a strange line: it protected the tow truck but not the family the tow truck was coming to rescue. AB 390 erased that line on January 1, 2026. Every driver now owes every stranded vehicle with its flashers on a lane of space or a slower pass, and when someone ignores that duty and a person on the shoulder gets hurt, the violation itself becomes powerful evidence of negligence. Turn on your hazards every time you stop. It is now both your safety measure and your legal protection.

Hit While Stopped on the Shoulder? Talk to a Folsom Injury Attorney

If a passing driver struck you or a family member while your vehicle was stopped roadside, the new law may put the weight of proof on your side — but only if the evidence is preserved quickly. Mason Law, P.C. represents injury victims in Folsom and throughout the Sacramento region, and we know the Highway 50 and I-80 corridors where these crashes happen. We will obtain the CHP report, preserve dashcam and vehicle data, and identify every insurance policy available for your recovery. Consultations are free, and you pay nothing unless we recover for you. Call (916) 587-2997 or reach us through our contact form.