Whether this Center Pilot Car driver was authorized to use this crossover, their attempt almost caused a rear-end collision.

Hampton Roads commuter and Redditor /u/OK-Presentation-4615 shared headshaking dashcam footage from earlier last week (Apr 4, 2025) to the /r/IdiotsInCars subreddit showing a Pilot Car driver in a Toyota Sienna botching the use of the Interstate Crossover only meant for Authorized Vehicles, almost causing the dashcam owner to collide with them.

Check out the dashcam footage embedded below with the original Reddit thread linked here.

The incident happened on Admiral Taussig Blvd a.k.a. I-564 in Norfolk (Exact location on Google Maps linked here.)

As the dashcam footage shows, OP is driving in Lane #1 of I-564 when he notices a driver in a blue Toyota Sienna in front of him almost slow to a stop.

The Sienna driver, a van repurposed as use as a Center Pilot Car and with license plate UAT-3243, slips into and attempts to use an opening in the interstate, a crossover only intended for authorized vehicles.

According to § 46.2-808.1 of the Code of Virginia,

“For the purposes of this section, “authorized vehicle” means (i) Department of Transportation vehicles; (ii) law-enforcement vehicles; (iii) emergency vehicles as defined in § 46.2-920; (iv) towing and recovery vehicles operating under the direction of a law-enforcement agency or the Department of Transportation…”

In other words, DOT, emergency, and towing vehicles are allowed to use that crossover.

Further on, it says that if permitted, authorized vehicles, presumably including Pilot Cars, can use that crossover.

It’s impossible to know without further information if that van was permitted as such.

Regardless, with no heavy load to pilot and no flashing lights indicating their duty, this van wasn’t, at the moment, operating as a pilot car.

The Pilot Car’s dangerous maneuver causes OP to slow in response and swerve out of the way to prevent a collision.

“You can’t hear it in the video, but I was blaring my horn; that’s why the other (not stupid) car got so far over, think they were trying to give me room,” OP clarified.

Thankfully, nothing came of this incident, and all parties involved made it out unscathed.

“I live in Ohio, we not only have the “only authorized vehicles’ signs, but also explicitly the no U turn signs. And yet people (especially those from out of state) still f***ing do it anyway. I’ve even watched morons pull right up next to a trooper to make a U turn just for the trooper to turn on the lights and do the traffic stop right in the median without moving their car,” the top comment from /u/tankerkiller125real reads.

“Authorized vehicle or not, this is still dangerous and stupid,” /u/gluten-heimer commented.

“Well, your problem is driving anywhere in Hampton Roads lol,” local /u/courtachino replied.

In Virginia, unauthorized use of those controlled crossovers is “a traffic infraction punishable by a fine of no more than $250.“