A man driving a hearse was let off with a warning for driving in a carpool lane after saying he assumed a corpse would count as a passenger.
The vehicle was pulled over by Highway Patrol officers in Nevada who were patrolling use of the high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane, which is reserved for vehicles carrying at least two people.
The driver, who has not been named, told the officer he had “a deceased in the back" after being asked why he was using the lane on Interstate 15 in Las Vegas.
Today we stopped a local funereal home hearse in the HOV lane. The driver had the dearly departed in the back, he t… https://t.co/lxxEIlsl4w— NHP Southern Command (@NHP Southern Command) 1562020358.0
The officer gave the man a warning and advised him not to use the lane in future, while Nevada Highway Patrol used the opportunity to remind motorists that only “living, breathing people" count as passengers.
It tweeted: “Today we stopped a local funereal home hearse in the HOV lane. The driver had the dearly departed in the back, he thought the deceased could be counted as two people.
“I guess we should clarify this, living, breathing people count for the HOV lane."
While the officers likely thought it was an amusing story, people weren't exactly laughing.
@NHPSouthernComm Hopefully, this is “fake” news... and you really didn’t pull over someone’s loved one while in transit.— Kathryn Rogers (@Kathryn Rogers) 1562025486.0
@NHPSouthernComm Hope this is a joke. You'd have to be a pretty big loser to pull over a dead person transport for a technical violation.— Mike D (@Mike D) 1562075673.0
@NHPSouthernComm Seriously, this is what you’re wasting taxpayers money on?!?!— Brady Behrens (@Brady Behrens) 1562022947.0
@NHPSouthernComm wow keep working on keeping those streets safe 🙄— jena (@jena) 1562114715.0
@NHPSouthernComm You do realize how bad this looks on you— Andrea Anderson (@Andrea Anderson) 1562091517.0
@NHPSouthernComm If this isn't a joke it shd be, considering the amount of unsafe drivers, speeding, road rage, red… https://t.co/HBoa8JZzFc— Tanya Bourne (@Tanya Bourne) 1562083788.0
@NHPSouthernComm No respect for the dead huh?— Clovis (@Clovis) 1562120695.0
Yikes.