HOV dummy is not alone on roads

MomSeattle · DadSeattle · SPI · MySeattlePix · My account

Local

US/World

Sports

Business

A&E

Life

Comics

Photos

Opinion

Blogs

Buy Ads

NWsource

Robert L. Jamieson Jr.

HOV dummy is not alone on roads

Thursday, March 14, 2002

By ROBERT L. JAMIESON Jr.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER COLUMNIST

The real dummy was behind the wheel.

The mannequin, on the passenger side, was just a hostage strapped in for a ride in the fast lane.

The two shared a minivan on silent morning commutes, unknown to the rest of the world.

Until Tuesday's freeway fandango.

That's when driver Susan Aeschliman-Hill suddenly veered her minivan into the car-pool lane on Interstate 405.

She cut in front of a bus filled with schoolkids. The bus rear-ended her minivan, which pushed into a second bus, triggering a chain- reaction collision. More than a dozen folks were taken to the hospital for minor injuries; traffic was backed up like a busted commode.

And the secret to Susan's speedy commute was out: She was using a dummy to sneak into the car-pool lane -- the sacred space for vehicles with two or more real people.

"This saved 45 minutes on my commute each day," Susan said last night from her home in Kent. "There was just this temptation. I figured I'd do it until I got caught. I just didn't figure on something like this happening."

By "this," she's talking about the big pileup.

Susan is a smart woman. She knows the rules. She works in the hospitality business.

But when traffic gets as bad as it does around here, even smart people can be driven to do dumb things -- anything to break car-pool rules.

They prop up broomsticks with Styrofoam heads and wigs in the passenger seat. They put a baby seat up front, filled with rolled-up blankets -- but no baby. They buckle in the family dog, shotgun style, and soap up windows so it's hard to see inside.

Or they just drive solo -- and pray they don't get caught.

Susan got the mannequin as a joke gift last Christmas. She quickly realized the dummy could help slash her morning commute to the Bellevue area.

On Tuesday around 8 in the morning, the mannequin -- let's call her Sidekick Sally -- was Susan's traveling buddy.

Sidekick Sally was wearing a black-and-white angora. Her big blue eyes were glowing, and her face had the right touch of makeup. A real looker.

"Like one you'd see in Nordstrom," State Patrol spokeswoman Monica Hunter said.

The commute was going smoothly, when the unexpected happened in the northbound lanes near Renton.

A trooper arrived at the accident scene and spoke with Susan.

Trooper: "What were you doing?"

Susan : "I don't remember."

Trooper: "Did you use the dummy for the HOV lane?"

Susan: "Sometimes. But not today."

Obviously, Susan mistook the trooper for, well, ... you know what.

Anyway, the accident shook up Susan. Sidekick Sally, who was wide-eyed through it all, lost an arm -- and more.

"She had on a black wig," Hunter said, "but it fell off."

We should all be thankful that no one was seriously injured in a mess that sprang from Susan's impatience, selfishness and disregard for fellow drivers.

Unfortunately, hers is not an isolated case.

Last year, authorities stopped 11,714 drivers for HOV-related violations on Washington's highways -- that's 8,527 tickets, 3,187 warnings.

Two years ago, motorists contacted a special Department of Transportation hot line more than 43,000 times to squeal on people who were doing stupid people tricks in car-pool lanes.

Through last November, the "Hero Hotline" -- 206-764-HERO -- got more than 38,000 reports.

Motorists call in the make and model of cars, when and where the HOV high jinks took place and the license-plate numbers. Then, the Department of Transportation sends out a friendly brochure to let drivers know they've been spotted -- and should stop or risk a fine.

Susan, state officials say, got one of those brochures last year.

Not so, Susan said last night: "If I had, it probably would have made me think twice."

Sidekick Sally is still locked up in the minivan, which sits in a lot.

Susan insists she did no evil. She said she sees countless drivers in the car-pool lane, and they do not have passengers. "So you could say, we were all cheating," she said. "I was just doing it better."

Susan is facing a $133 citation for making an unsafe lane change, in addition to an $86 fine for the HOV violation. She's lucky she wasn't in California. In that state, a mannequin sidekick in a car-pool lane commands a fine of $270 -- and up.

Susan said what she did was dumb. She won't do it again. She's no dummy.

P-I columnist Robert L. Jamieson Jr. can be reached at 206-448-8125 or robertjamieson@seattlepi.com

Add Robert Jamieson headlines to