What a dummy: Trooper busts driver with mannequin in I-405 HOV lane
Feb 13, 2014, 12:53 PM | Updated: 3:45 pm
If you’re going to drive in the HOV lane with a dummy, you probably don’t want to try it on I-405 near Bellevue.
A state trooper busted a driver Thursday with a mannequin in the passenger seat driving southbound near 160th St., close to where he arrested another driver trying the same thing just two months ago.
At first, it looked like there was just a pile of clothes in the passenger seat, but as the trooper approached the car, he spotted what appeared to be a woman with long curly hair, glasses, and a plaid jacket.
“The passenger didn’t move a lot or say a lot, so that raised his suspicion even more,” explains Trooper Chris Webb.
Webb says troopers commonly catch people trying to pull a fast one in the HOV lane, doing things like putting jackets on seats with hats or putting things in baby seats to look like passengers.
“There are little things we’ve picked up on over the years that troopers are pretty observant about, but in this case, it was a bit more obvious,” he says.
“It’s probably happening a lot more than we know because we obviously can only stop so many cars in a day.”
The driver was given a $124 ticket.
