Juan Leon, the Marin CHP public information officer, documents the evidence yesterday after a kickboxing dummy was confiscated from a commuter using the car-pool lane with it strapped into the passenger seat. The CHP issued a citation to the driver.
Posted on 11/03/2005 8:13:14 AM PST by Cagey
In many respects, Kevin Morgan's carpooling companion is the perfect passenger. He's never late for his ride, he always wears his seat belt, and he doesn't talk incessantly over the radio. But he doesn't have a pulse, and sometimes that can be a major drawback.
Morgan, 28, of Petaluma was slapped with a $351 citation in Marinwood yesterday for driving in a carpool lane with a kickboxing dummy propped up in the passenger seat, the California Highway Patrol said.
The dummy, wearing a seatbelt and dressed smartly in a baseball cap and a Miami Dolphins windbreaker, might even have passed for a real human. But CHP Officer Will Thompson couldn't help noticing one minor detail: Morgan's passenger was a torso without legs.
"When I looked inside his window, I thought, 'Oh, that's cute,'" Thompson said. "I didn't even ask him where he got it. I think he was pretty embarrassed because all the people driving by were laughing."
Thompson, a patrolman for the past 15 years, including 10 in Marin, has made something of a specialty out of flushing out carpool violators. During the morning commute, he often parks his patrol car right next to the southbound carpool lane between Ignacio and Lucas Valley Road. Then he stands up on his doorrail so he can look down into the cars as they approach.
The high vantage point allowed himto spot Morgan's legless companion at a distance. After stopping Morgan, Thompson hauled the torso out of the passenger seat and plunked it down on the freeway shoulder to enlighten the passing commuters.
"I think about the only thing he said was, 'Well, that didn't help me very much today, did it?'" Thompson said. "I said, 'No, it didn't.'
"He wasn't too worried about the torso, but he wanted the jacket. I told him after it gets adjudicated he could come and get it."
Bogus carpool passengers are a longstanding phenomenon of modern life. In 2002, a woman driving with a mannequin - complete with a wig, a sweater and makeup - darted into a carpool lane near Seattle and caused a series of pileups involving six cars and two buses, according to new reports. Fifteen students on a class trip were injured.
Carpool dummies have even been dragged into political debates.
"Carpool lanes are making criminals out of people who are simply trying to make it to work on time," California Assemblyman Ray Haynes, a Riverside Republican, wrote in a 2000 editorial against carpool lanes. "Some motorists have used imaginative deceptions to appear eligible for carpool lanes. Some have been caught with dummies in the passenger seat. Others have carried infant car seats without infants. One pregnant woman insisted that her unborn child was a passenger."
At least one company, Archie McPhee Toys, Gifts and Novelties of Seattle, markets a 5-foot-6-inch female mannequin for use in traffic.
"These sleek, hard vinyl mannequins are perfect for dressing up and propping in the passenger seat so you can use the carpool lane," the company Web site attests. The cost is $225.
Even in Marin, carpool dummies are not unheard of, police say. But they are rare.
"I've been here seven years and I think this is the third time I've seen this happen," said Lt. Charles McLaughlin, a supervisor in the CHP's Corte Madera office.
"I've heard a lot of excuses, but I've never had a dummy," said Thompson. "I found it humorous at the lengths some people will go."
Morgan could not be reached for comment.
Juan Leon, the Marin CHP public information officer, documents the evidence yesterday after a kickboxing dummy was confiscated from a commuter using the car-pool lane with it strapped into the passenger seat. The CHP issued a citation to the driver.
Ha! The dummy even has a sourpuss "I'm on my way to work" look on its face.
I'm glad Kali has things like crime, illegal immigration, corruption, and so forth so much under control that police officers have the opportunity to concentrate on things like carpool violators.
New Jersey drivers were heard a few years ago and the state got rid of it's car pool lanes. I wonder if Californians can do the same.
Apparently Morgan's response "didn't have legs".
Yea, but they nabbed $351 for the state piggy bank. That's what really counts.
And Interstate 80. But you're right, I did forget about the bus lanes going into the city.
Two dummies in that car!!
The notion that the dummy and jacket needed to be taken for evidence is absurd. He should have written the citation just as for anyone with an empty passenger seat. (Take a picture if you must.)
This is a press publicity stunt by cops who should have better things to do.
What is the law in Illinois regarding tinted windows?
625 ILCS 5/12-503. Windshields must be unobstructed and equipped with wipers.
(a) No person shall drive a motor vehicle with any sign, poster, window application, reflective material, nonreflective material or tinted film upon the front windshield, sidewings or side windows immediately adjacent to each side of the driver. A nonreflective tinted film may be used along the uppermost portion of the windshield if such material does not extend more than 6 inches down from the top of the windshield. Nothing in this Section shall create a cause of action on behalf of a buyer against a dealer or manufacturer who sells a motor vehicle with a window which is in violation of this Section.
High Occupation Vehicle lanes cause congestion. A fourlane road would have a 20-25% higher throughput of traffic if those lanes were normal traffic lanes.
Accidents involving HOV traffic to regular lanes or vice versa are more serious because of the speed differential. The Puget Sound (Washington state) is going to spend BILLIONS on road projects and most will not include new general traffic lanes.
HOV lanes also discriminates against single people. The PC term is car pool lane. It is supposed to take other vehicles off the road. A parent with a child, or a couple does not take another vehicle off the road.
It's a dumb and costly idea.
DK
Yah... the carseat lanes should be kept for the real intended users! People with babies in car seats!
It will never happen. The PC crowd is too well organized. Case in point: handicap zones. A colleague parked in one, by mistake (poor markings, no blue sign). She got a ticket. Pleaded not guilty. At her trial three advocates and an attorney showed up to argue against her.
All she had was a roll of film. she lost.
If they tried to change the CP Lanes, the PC crown would go bonkers.
I remember back in the 1980s when a funeral director was stopped and issued a citation for driving the HOV lane. He went to court, and because he had a corpse in the hearse, the judge tossed the case. The law (at that time) didn't stipulate that the "passenger" had to be alive.
In their zeal for ever more cash to spend, states criminalize ever more rational behavior.
Bumping a great, accurate post.
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