This certainly isn’t the first time someone’s been caught trying to cheat carpool lane privileges with a mannequin but really?
Traffic is so bad in the Bay Area that some motorists are pulling out one of the oldest carpool cheats in the books, putting a full-sized mannequin in the passenger seat. According to CHP San Jose on Twitter earlier yesterday (Mar. 28,2018) a driver was caught in the carpool lane after what looked like a fake person dressed as a real person was riding shotgun. Upon closer inspection, as you can see in their post, there was indeed a full-sized mannequin in the driver’s seat. Check out the photo for yourself below.
Caught today on 680 during carpool enforcement. Hope he’s not expecting his passenger to pay half the ticket! #MannequinManipulation pic.twitter.com/ql7kMlvyWJ
— CHP San Jose (@CHPSanJose) March 28, 2018
KRON 4 dropped a followup on their tweet earlier today and it looks like the CHP was out in full force yesterday specifically looking for carpool violators. And it looks like lady luck was not shining its face on this driver today because he couldn’t have picked a worse time to pull off this trick.
Referencing California Vehicle Code Section 21655.5, first-time offenders for breaking carpool lane laws is, at a minimum, $490 before fees are attached. That fine can go up by 50 percent when all is said and done.
You can have the appropriate amount of passengers but if you enter or exiting a carpool lane illegally by crossing over double yellow lines, that’s a fine between $100-$150, again, before fees.
Perhaps this particular violater is willing to pony up $500 to save him a bit of time if indeed his time is really worth that much. Who knows how long he’s been keeping this charade up and if he’s fooled police before.
But if you’re an average commuter like me, it’s certainly not worth it to pull off something like this.
Face it, you’re going to have to leave just a bit earlier if you want to beat traffic or, you know, actually carpool.