Police: Wooden Figure in Sweatshirt Does Not Count as Passenger in HOV Lane

If you are going to attempt to pull off the fake passenger in the HOV lane trick, it is probably best to not attract any unwanted attention.

James Campbell got that attention from a Suffolk County highway patrol officer on Friday morning when police say he was speeding on the Long Island Expressway.

Officer Jonathan Abrams pulled over Campbell, of Brentwood, in the westbound HOV lane near Exit 51 in Dix Hills around 6:30 a.m.

When Abrams approached Campbell’s red pickup truck, the officer noticed that Campbell’s front seat passenger was not exactly human, police said. Campbell, 56, may have believed the wooden figure wearing a hooded sweatshirt was his ticket into the HOV lane, but unfortunately for him, the law does not recognize wooden figures as passengers.

Why did Campbell attempt to pull off the dummy-in-the-passenger-seat ruse?

He told the officer that he was driving to a new job and did not want to be late, police said.

Campbell was issued summonses for speeding and occupancy violation.

SCPD photo: The wooden figure “passenger” that was riding in Campbell’s truck.

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