Posted by Duffless at hide101.suffolk.edu on May 28, 2002 at 09:38:44:
Its funny, this article is about a dummy, and a person who dresses up Mannequin's as women and pretends they are real....no wonder its called a HOV lane
Motorist, dummy in HOV lane accident
SEATTLE, Washington -- Don't blame the dummy in the front seat for this car crash.
A woman driving with a fully dressed mannequin as her passenger was arrested after she caused a chain of collisions involving six cars and two buses.
Police say Susan Aeschliman-Hill, 59, was driving in the carpool lane on Interstate 405 in Renton during the early morning hours of March 12 when she cut off a bus that was carrying band members from a nearby high school. In an effort to avoid a collision, the bus driver sideswiped a pickup truck, which triggered a series of crashes that closed the freeway and backed up traffic for nearly an hour, according to a spokeswoman for the Washington state patrol.
Fifteen band members, a bus driver and a woman in another vehicle were treated for minor bumps and bruises.
Authorities say Aeschliman-Hill received the mannequin from a friend as a joke and admitted to frequently rigging the dummy as a female passenger to use the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane. According to eyewitnesses, the dummy was a convincing fake of a woman in a suit with a wig and makeup.
Authorities concede that people violate the HOV lane every day and while the act is not criminal, Aeschliman-Hill was cited for driving alone in the HOV lane and making an unsafe lane change.
-- Reported by Hozaifa Cassubhai