Former trooper wants to stop dusting on highways

Troopers call it dusting and those caught doing it would get tougher penalties under a bill that cleared the Iowa House. The bill says drivers must move in the opposite lane when an emergency vehicle is on the side of the road. Current law tells you to get out of the way when you encounter a moving ambulance or squad car but it says nothing about stationary vehicles. Representative Clel Baudler of Greenfield is a retired state trooper who was hurt in 1990 in a dusting on Interstate 80. He says a drug dealer from Chicago hit his car as he sat writing a ticket for another car. All three cars were totaled.Yesterday, another trooper was hurt on I-80 in Dallas County in a similar incident. Baudler says the proposed law might help reduce the risk of more accidents like that one. Baudler used to jump in his squad car and track down drivers who drove too close to him when he stood on the shoulder, but county attorneys would reduce or toss out his reckless driving tickets. The new crime for dusting a trooper would bring a 50-dollar fine.