{"id":467731,"date":"2025-12-24T00:22:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T00:22:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/467731\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T00:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T00:22:11","slug":"scotts-law-illinois-chicago-fire-department-honors-fallen-lt-scott-gillen-killed-in-dan-ryan-expressway-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/467731\/","title":{"rendered":"Scott’s Law Illinois: Chicago Fire Department honors fallen Lt. Scott Gillen, killed in Dan Ryan Expressway crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

CHICAGO (WLS) — Twenty-five years ago on Tuesday, Chicago Fire Department Lieutenant Scott Gillen was killed in a crash on the Dan Ryan Expressway.<\/p>\n

His death prompted Scott’s Law, which requires drivers to move over.<\/p>\n

ABC7 Chicago is now streaming 24\/7. Click here to watch<\/a><\/p>\n

Tuesday is Scott’s Law Day in Illinois, and a special remembrance got underway as Truck Company 27, along with the Chicago Fire Department marked a milestone anniversary of Scott’s passing.<\/p>\n

“At least his legacy is here, and he’s saving a lot of people’s lives, so that was the big thing, you know, save lives,” said Don Gillen, Scott’s brother.<\/p>\n

It has been 25 years since the tragedy that happened on December 23, 2000. That’s when an intoxicated motorist struck Scott as he responded to a crash.<\/p>\n

Scott’s older brother, Matt Gillen, who was also on the job back then, remembers hearing the distress call.<\/p>\n

“So, I was waiting to hear something, like, ‘Come on Scott, come on Scott, respond,’ and he didn’t respond, and that’s when we heard a fireman was hit and down,” he said.<\/p>\n

Scott’s Law requires all drivers to slow down and move over when approaching an emergency vehicle or any vehicle with its emergency or hazard lights activated. Then-Illinois Gov. George Ryan signed the law in August 2001.<\/p>\n

Since then, the Move Over Law has been strengthened, increasing fines up to $10,000 and adding penalties of possible license suspension and felony charges. It also now includes construction zones, along with emergency or roadside vehicles.<\/p>\n

According to Illinois State Police, in 2024, the most recent year data is available, there were 135 reported Scott’s Law violations, which resulted in 27 crashes, injuring 12 ISP troopers and killing one trooper.<\/p>\n

Trooper Clay Carns<\/a> was killed on the 24th anniversary of the incident that led to Scott’s Law.<\/p>\n

The 35-year-old husband and father of two was hit by a passing motorist on southbound Interstate 55 near Channahon as he removed debris from the roadway.<\/p>\n

John Fleet, the driver charged in the crash, heads back to court next month.<\/p>\n

“Respect first responders, our police, our state troopers, our firefighters and paramedics because they want to go home to their families too,” said CFD Commissioner Annette Nance-Holt.<\/p>\n

People at Tuesday’s small ceremony say it is important not to forget the loss of Scott Gillen, but it is also important to honor the legacy his sacrifice creates for the future.<\/p>\n

They hope awareness about the law will grow in order to save more lives.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 WLS-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CHICAGO (WLS) — Twenty-five years ago on Tuesday, Chicago Fire Department Lieutenant Scott Gillen was killed in a…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":467732,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[212662,960,46098,5462,5386,1818,212660,212658,212659,212661],"class_list":{"0":"post-467731","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-212662","9":"tag-chicago","10":"tag-chicago-fire-department","11":"tag-chicago-news","12":"tag-il","13":"tag-illinois","14":"tag-scott-gillen","15":"tag-scotts-law","16":"tag-scotts-law-day","17":"tag-scotts-law-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115771693544185524","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467731","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=467731"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/467731\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/467732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=467731"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=467731"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=467731"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}