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legalese - Is the usage of the idiom "Move Over" in this passage clear on what side to move over to?


Consider this passage in the Georgia DDS 2010 Driver’s Manual: on page 40:



The Georgia Move-Over Law requires drivers to move over one lane when possible if an emergency vehicle with flashing lights is parked on the shoulder of the highway. If traffic is too heavy to move over safely, the law requires drivers to slow down below the posted speed limit AND to be prepared to stop.



Without knowing why to move over, does the "Move-Over" usage above make it clear to where?


This law is a safety law, but if someone doesn't know that, is there a grammatical support to it?


If instead of "Emergency vehicle... of the highway" it was "an Emergency vehicle is flashing its lights behind you" it might have been understood as move to the left, Therefore the only clue to the understanding of where to move to is common sense and meaning and not sentence grammar.


Note that it is phrased "Move-Over ... if an emergency vehicle ..." and not "Move-Over ... for" one


So can it be understood by any reader, that it requires to Move Over to the right and not the left?



Answer



In the passage you cited, there is no indication whatsoever as to which -direction- to move over.


There is no real semantic difference between 'if' and 'for' here (other than 'for' is not grammatical in place of the 'if').


I would presume that such a manual would have general rules like 'Carry out further rules in the safest manner possible', and 'safest' would involve some judgement and common sense (yes, the rule book is sort of a list of common sense things). For example, a general rule might be 'Do not pass on the right' but an unstated common sense exception would be 'unless you're passing a stopped vehicle in the left most lane'. For the instance you're thinking of, maybe if you're in a multi-lane traffic, the default is to move over/pull over to the right, but if you're closer to the left side you might be expected to pullover to the left. This is pure speculation, and I have no idea of the particulars of your situation.


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