'Ashley's Law' Requiring Sirens for Police Calls Passes

Virginia police officers responding to emergency calls will now be required to sound their horns and flash their lights while driving through intersections.

Virginia Sen. Linda "Toddy" Puller (D-36th) received a victory on Feb. 25 when her amendment to Senate Bill No. 762 passed unanimously in both houses on the day the general assembly session adjourned.

The amendment, known as “Ashley’s Law,” requires policemen and women and emergency vehicle drivers to use both their lights and sirens, and slow down or yield to drivers already in an intersection, or come to a complete stop if necessary.

Currently, Virginia code states that police officers are only required to use a siren when passing through a red light at an intersection "as may be reasonably necessary." The amendment is waiting to be signed into law by Va. Gov. Bob McDonnell.

Puller sponsored the bill after one of her constituents, Ashley McIntosh, was killed by a Fairfax County police cruiser driven by Officer Amanda Perry on Feb. 12, 2008.

McIntosh was turning out of the Mount Vernon Plaza shopping center on a green light when her Toyota Corolla was struck by Perry, who was driving against a red light at the intersection of Route 1 and Boswell Avenue in Hybla Valley. The hit threw McIntosh from her car and into the intersection. She died from her injuries the next day.

Witnesses of the accident told McIntosh's mother, Cindy Colasanto, that the cruiser seemed to be traveling much faster than the speed limit and that the cruiser's lights were on, but the siren was not. Perry, then 22, later testified that she tried to flip the siren on, but that it wouldn't activate, Colasanto said.

Colasanto said she believes her daughter's death would have been prevented if the siren had been on.

"I believe that this law will save the lives of other people who are crossing intersections because it will make the police, or any emergency vehicle, either stop or slow down and yield to traffic coming in the other direction," Puller said in a legislative update on Ashley's law.

Puller said she had been working on the bill since early 2009. The bill underwent numerous revisions before receiving an unanimous endorsement from the state crime commission this year. The bill was then presented to the assembly where it was passed in both houses.

"I think its a very good thing and I am pleased that it was passed this year," Puller said.