Mom had `decoy' child in carpool lane

[KIISQueen]

A 39-year-old Aurora woman has become the first person in Ontario to be caught using a decoy in her vehicle so she could drive in a carpool lane.

Instead of finding a child in a car seat during yesterday morning's rush hour, an Ontario Provincial Police officer patrolling the high-occupancy vehicle lane on Highway 404 discovered a stuffed winter coat.

"It looked like Kenny from South Park was strapped in the child seat," OPP Sgt. Cam Woolley said.

More than one person must be in a vehicle in order to use the specially designated lanes. Police have issued hundreds of tickets to violators since HOV lanes opened on Highway 404 and Highway 403 in December. About 1,000 vehicles a day have been using the carpool lanes during rush hour, police said.

"We've been averaging a couple of hundred tickets each month and some of them are real rocket scientists," Woolley said. "We've caught people driving with no insurance, no licence and on criminal warrants.

"But we actually thought we'd wind up getting a lot of people using mannequins like they have done in California and other places.... This is the first person who has been really creative at cheating just so they could use the HOV lanes."

Woolley said the driver, whose name has not been released, admitted to the patrol officer that she had pulled the stunt many times in the past. "She told the officer that the fake baby routine usually worked," he said.

The officer initially spotted the motorist heading south on the 404 near Sheppard Ave. at about 9 a.m.

"He noticed (the car) seemed to be driving too slowly, so he pulled up beside her," Woolley said. "Had she been going faster, he probably wouldn't have stopped her, but he just thought something didn't look right.

"He really thought at first it was a real kid sitting in the child seat in the right rear of the car. He pulled up beside her and drove for a long period. Even when he stopped her, the officer still wasn't 100 per cent certain there wasn't a real kid in the car seat."

Woolley said the woman had stuffed a hooded winter coat with an unknown material and pulled the hood down so the face wouldn't have been visible.

"His arms were stretched out, but there weren't any hands," Woolley said. "Looked like a scarecrow ... and that Kenny character from the South Park cartoon series. He was almost fooled."

Police said the woman, who was on her way to work in downtown Toronto, was charged under the Highway Traffic Act with improper use of an HOV lane. If convicted, she faces a fine of $110 and a penalty of three demerit points.

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[ShawnLee]

"It looked like Kenny from South Park was strapped in the child seat," OPP Sgt. Cam Woolley said.

Hahahahaha.

[sibergirly]

That is too funny. I have known people to put blow up dolls in the seat and dress them. But that was smart of the lady to put a decoy baby. most of the time when you are driving you really don't look at who is sitting in the carseats.
but is it really worth a fine of $110.00??
I think I rather sit in traffic.

[DarkFury]

OMG... they killed KENNY!!!

[Devhux]

Hahahahaha.

My exact reaction upon reading that line.

[avlena]

my friend's fiance has a very realistic looking maniquin that he uses. He puts on a real wig, sticks on big sunglasses, and voila! My friend was tricked once with her, stood right outside the car, and asked her fiance why he made the poor woman stay in the car while he went upstairs.

Personally, I hope he gets caught and fined up the wazoo.

[Prisoner 24601]

there have been other reports of women that were pregnant driving in carpool lanes!!!

They need to rephrase the lines of the carpool purpose! The main idea is to take cars off of the road, can the baby in the womb drive????

[Thesifer]

"If convicted, she faces a fine of $110 and a penalty of three demerit points."

Uhmm.. Third Grade they stop with the Demerits I thought?

[Markel]

On a related note: (link)

Carpool Dummy Sells on eBay for $15,000
Mar 24, 8:29 AM (ET)

DENVER (AP) - A makeshift mannequin that failed to fool police monitoring the high-occupancy vehicle lane on a highway has fetched $15,000 in an auction on eBay, with proceeds going to charity, the buyer announced.

A company called Video Professor bought the Styrofoam head, coat hanger, and clothing stuffed with newspapers from carpool-lane scofflaw Greg Pringle, 53, said Brian Olson, a spokesman for the company.

Olson said the computer tutoring company will take Tillie to various events and later auction her off again for charity in June.

As part of his sentence handed down earlier this month, Pringle agreed to donate any profits from a Web site - launched to free "Tillie" after she was impounded by police - and the auction to a driver safety awareness program.

"We've rescued Tillie from a life of crime and we hope to rehabilitate her so she can be a contributing dummy to our society," Olson said Thursday, The Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News reported.

Pringle also was fined $115 and ordered to hold a sign alongside the highway for four hours reading: "HOV lane not for dummies." He was pulled over and ticketed Jan. 26 for driving in the lane reserved for car pools, motorcycles, buses, and hybrid vehicles.

Pringle has said it cost him $10 to create Tillie.