With old age comes wisdom, or so they say. In the case of one Arizona driver, aging seems to have brought nothing but an extra dose of creativity and more inclination to use it to break the law.
Throughout the years, we’ve seen or heard of some of the silliest tricks invented by drivers to illegally use the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane, from dressing up cardboard cutouts and mannequins, to dressing up the passenger seat or using other home-made props.
This one man from Arizona was able to extend the lifetime of Halloween decorations, past the usual use-store-reuse next year cycle. He was pulled over by an officer who noticed something different about his passenger, who turned out to be a skeleton dressed up in a sun hat and last century’s hottest in mummy fashion, secured to the seat by yellow rope.
The driver has only been identified as a 62-year-old man, which goes to prove that not everyone ages a wise man or woman. He gets points for creativity, for sure, but not for using them to break the law.
“Think you can use the HOV lane with Skeletor riding shotgun? You’re dead wrong!” the Arizona Department of Public Safety says in a tweet confirming the strange traffic stop. “One of our motor troopers cited the 62-year-old male driver for HOV & window tint violations on SR-101 near Apache Blvd this morning. #NiceTry #YoureNotHeMan”
Statistics show that about 7,000 drivers are caught violating HOV rules every year in Arizona, according to the BBC so, while this was an instance that stands out, it was by no means an isolated one.
As for excuses for illegally using the HOV lane, we’ve actually heard stranger – and more sinister. In the summer of 2019, a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper pulled over a Chrysler minivan for this reason, only to be informed by the driver that the minivan was a hearse carrying a corpse. This prompted a warning from the NHP that dead bodies “don’t count” as passengers.
This one man from Arizona was able to extend the lifetime of Halloween decorations, past the usual use-store-reuse next year cycle. He was pulled over by an officer who noticed something different about his passenger, who turned out to be a skeleton dressed up in a sun hat and last century’s hottest in mummy fashion, secured to the seat by yellow rope.
The driver has only been identified as a 62-year-old man, which goes to prove that not everyone ages a wise man or woman. He gets points for creativity, for sure, but not for using them to break the law.
“Think you can use the HOV lane with Skeletor riding shotgun? You’re dead wrong!” the Arizona Department of Public Safety says in a tweet confirming the strange traffic stop. “One of our motor troopers cited the 62-year-old male driver for HOV & window tint violations on SR-101 near Apache Blvd this morning. #NiceTry #YoureNotHeMan”
Statistics show that about 7,000 drivers are caught violating HOV rules every year in Arizona, according to the BBC so, while this was an instance that stands out, it was by no means an isolated one.
As for excuses for illegally using the HOV lane, we’ve actually heard stranger – and more sinister. In the summer of 2019, a Nevada Highway Patrol trooper pulled over a Chrysler minivan for this reason, only to be informed by the driver that the minivan was a hearse carrying a corpse. This prompted a warning from the NHP that dead bodies “don’t count” as passengers.
Think you can use the HOV lane with Skeletor riding shotgun? You’re dead wrong! One of our motor troopers cited the 62-year-old male driver for HOV & window tint violations on SR-101 near Apache Blvd this morning. #NiceTry #YoureNotHeMan #AZTroopers pic.twitter.com/wQYY831mNY
— Dept. Public Safety (@Arizona_DPS) January 23, 2020