Illinois has announced a partnership with Google and Waze on an initiative to encourage drivers to move over to avoid crashes sparked by stopped vehicles.Gov. JB Pritzker unveiled the new technology at a news conference Wednesday. The program allows Illinois State Police to send notifications via Waze about upcoming crashes or maintenance issues on the road to let drivers know to get out of the way ahead of time.Failure to move over in time can cause crashes that typically endanger state police, first responders and highway maintenance workers stationed on roadsides.“This technology integrates seamlessly with traffic apps that drivers are already using to give straightforward alerts to adjust motorist behavior — warnings that have shown to be invaluable in protecting our motorists and making our roadways safer for everyone," Pritzker said.It’s all to prevent drivers from breaking “Scott’s Law,” which requires drivers to slow down and move over when a law enforcement or emergency responder vehicle is pulled over on the side of the road.The law was named after Scott Gillen, a Chicago firefighter who was killed in 2000 after a driver struck him while he was responding to a car crash on the Dan Ryan Expressway.While introducing the technology, Pritzker remembered two state troopers, Brooke Jones-Story and Christopher Lambert, who were killed in 2019 while working roadside during the governor's first term.Jones-Story was inspecting a semitrailer near Rockford when a man driving another semitrailer hit her. The semi driver was sentenced in 2021 to 180 days in prison. Lambert was responding to a car crash on I-294 when he was hit. The driver was charged with reckless homicide.“This is really designed to be prevention,” said Illinois State Police Director Brendan Kelly. “We want them to obey the law. … This is designed to empower all of us that are on our interstates, on our roads, to be given information ahead of time.”Since the project began in December 2023, it has already reached 3 million drivers, according to Sanjay Gupta, the state's chief information officer and secretary of the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology.Google public sector representative Joel Pingel said while the program is starting on Waze, a subsidiary of Google, it will soon be used on Google Maps, too, but he did not give details about when that will be.Kelly said the goal is to have this not just available on Google platforms but on other navigation apps, too.“We had a good, malleable and cooperative partner with the Waze app and Google,” he said, “so we began with Waze … and then we really hope this becomes the standard. This should be the way it’s done on every app that people are using when they’re driving.”