Carpool Lane Driver Busted After Hilarious Dummy Hack Discovered
He would've been able to get away with it if not for another driving mistake.
Driving in the carpool lane can be an easy way to get around traffic if you have two or more people in your car. If you're driving alone, though, it'll cost you if you're caught.
One southern California driver learned that lesson the hard way. On April 24, California Highway Patrol posted a photo on Instagram of a human-like dummy in the passenger seat of their car that the unnamed motorist used to drive in the HOV lane on a highway in Santa Fe Springs. It turns out it wasn't his first time doing so, and while he'd actually gotten away with it before, he was pulled over after crossing solid double lines on the road. It was then that the CHP officer noticed his strange-looking passenger.
"So folks have been asking, 'If I have a mannequin in the passenger seat, does that count as a second occupant in the vehicle? Trying to use the carpool lane with no one else in the car!' The answer is simple: NO. Like this motorist found out," CHP captioned the post. They went on to hand it to the driver for the creativity.
"We’ve gotta give it to them, the appearance is next-level modeling but at the end of the day, plastic is plastic," they said. The officer who pulled the driver over noticed "The goatee was sharp… just a little too sharp." In the end, the driver was given a citation for multiple carpool violations.
Commenters on the post chimed in with who they believed the dummy resembled. Many said it looked like Snoop Dogg—a fitting choice for a southern California incident—as well as Stevie Wonder.
You can't knock the driver for their unique way of skirting the rules.