In an effort to promote Ontario's Move Over law, the surviving family of an OPP officer killed in the line of duty has publicly come forward to talk about the impact of her death.
On June 7, 2000, Sergeant Margaret Eve of the Chatham-Kent OPP detachment was seriously injured after a tractor trailer smashed into three police cruisers that were parked on a roadside, during a high risk take down. She later died after being airlifted to a London hospital.
Eve, who was with the OPP for 14 years, was the first female OPP officer to die in the line of duty.
On Friday, her husband John Eve and her daughter Colleen Eve spoke to the media for the first time since that day.
John says their lives changed forever after the tragety that took the life of his wife and best friend.
"I had to do the hardest thing I've ever done in my life... I had to tell a three-year-old little girl and a six-year-old young man that mommy would not be coming home anymore," says John. "Had this person moved over back on June 7, 2000, Marg would still be here. So please, when you see emergency vehicles on our highways, when you see flashing lights... pay attention, please safely move over."
The Move Over law was enacted in 2003, three years after Margaret's death.
So far this year, the OPP has laid 763 charges for people violating the law, which requires drivers to slow down and move over when an emergency vehicle is parked on the side of the highway with its lights activated.