As the world gets weirder, so do the faux passengers that unscrupulous drivers employ to gain access the HOV lane. Washington State Patrol officer Rick Johnson pulled over a speeding driver and discovered that the gentleman's only passenger was a stuffed dinosaur. Fortunately, the dinosaur was wearing a safety belt.
According to a UPI report, "The driver could be facing a hefty fine thanks to a law that took effect last summer that adds a $200 fine to the $186 base fine for a HOV violation if a driver is caught 'using a dummy, doll, or other human facsimile to make it appear that an additional person is in the vehicle.'"
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On Monday, Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Travis Smaka pulled over a minivan in the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane because nobody else was visible inside except for the driver. Turns out, the driver works for a funeral home and was transporting a body. From the
Reno Gazette Journal:
"He immediately tells me he's got the remains of a person in the vehicle behind him, so I kind of glanced in the back and confirmed that,” Smaka said of what he saw in the cargo area – a bodybag strapped to a gurney. “It kind of threw me off a little bit, and then he just made the funny remark, something along the lines of, 'So he won't count?'.."
Nevada's HOV rules do not clarify whether an occupant must be breathing and leans on federal law, which is not much clearer....
An official with the Federal Highway Administration said it is up to individual states to define what an occupant is – and referred the USA Today Network to the Nevada Department of Transportation for additional information.
“When you talk about high occupancy vehicle lanes, you’re talking about seats – so a person would need to occupy a seat to qualify,” said Nevada Highway Patrol Trooper Jason Buratczuk. “This person was obviously a decedent and in the cargo area of the car, so they would not qualify for the HOV lane.”
The officer let the driver off with a warning.
image: SounderBruce/CC BY-SA 4.0
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Mesa, Arizona police busted a man for driving in the HOV lane with a dummy as his passenger.
"Another one Busted! Don't let this be you.... A driver was cited for HOV lane violation along the SR 202 at Alma School, for having a dummy masquerade as a passenger," tweeted the Department of Public Safety.
You'd think people would realize that the fuzz are onto this by now. At least he invested in a real mannequin unlike the below, from a classic gallery of "15 Hilariously Awful Dummies Used by Busted Carpool Lane Cheaters as Fake Passengers":
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