Driver arrested on I-5 in Kent using fake passenger in HOV lane

Drivers continue to try new ways to add fake passengers into their vehicles in order to use high-occupancy vehicle lanes that require at least two people in a car to use these lanes.

A Washington State Police trooper recently cited a woman in a high-occupancy vehicle lane on southbound Interstate 5 in Kent near South 272nd Street for driving 80 mph in a 60 mph zone and violating the high-occupancy vehicle law. The trooper discovered the woman had a fake passenger in the vehicle.

“The driver stated that it was her training aid and the reason it was positioned that way was to properly dry her hair,” according to State Patrol spokesman Trooper Rick Johnson in a July 14 post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The fine for a traffic violation is $186, but it can be higher if it’s a second offense within a certain time period and there’s an increased fine of $99 if you use a dummy or something like that, Johnson said in a July 16 email to the Kent Reporter.

Johnson said he didn’t know if the officer added the $99 increase to the HOV violation on the driver’s ticket.

For years, state police have been releasing photos of drivers arrested trying to make it look like they have a passenger.