Auburn, WA: Lunatic and Reckless Driver on Highway 167 Overtakes Motorcyclist in Same HOV Lane

You’re reading that correct, this unhinged driver overtook a motorcyclist using the same lane.

Presumed Washingtonian, Motorcyclist, and Redditor /u/LMGDiVA posted up disturbing head cam footage from Highway 167 in Auburn showing the moment a driver in a Chevrolet Spark overtook him in the HOV lane…in the same lane!

You’ve got to see it to believe it, video below.

[OC] Compact Car think’s its ok to speedracer past me in the HOV lane. (It is legal for motorcycles to use the HOV lane. It is not legal to pass a motorcycle in the same lane, however.)
byu/LMGDiVa inIdiotsInCars

The incident took place on Highway 167 in Auburn, an exit away from the Auburn Airport (location on Google Maps linked here.)

As OP’s head cam footage shows, he’s travelling in the HOV lane, a perfectly legal move in Washington.

“HOV Lanes are not passing lanes. HOV Lanes are safety lanes for Motorcycles. Motorcycles use them for SAFETY reasons. They are not passing lanes,” /u/LMGDiVa clarified in the comments.

All of a sudden, to his left, he sees a driver in a green Chevrolet Spark pass him in the HOV lane.

In case you’re wondering, no, that isn’t legal and is reckless driving.

OP made it clear that she wasn’t going slower than the speed of traffic and was, in fact, going faster than the speed limit.

“I was already doing 5 over, and if you watched the video I was gaining on the black car in the right lane,” /u/LMGDiVa commented.

“I was not going slower than traffic, I was matched with the truck in the left lane. I was already going as fast as the passing lane, and above the speed limit.”

“This freeway is 60, I was doing 65, green car was being a menace and doing nearly 90.”

According to WashingtonDUI.com,

“The crime of Reckless Driving is defined as driving a motor vehicle with willful and wanton disregard for the safety of persons or property.”

Seeing how this driver in a Spark passed, recklessly, with no regard for OP, a motorcyclist, I think their move fits that definition quite well.

In WA, reckless driving carries a maximum one-year prison sentence and/or a $5,000 fine.

If this Spark wanted to pass this motorcyclist safely, moving into the fast lane (aka the passing lane), or the lane to the left of the HOV lane, is where passing should’ve happened.