The guy was breaking no less than 6 laws. And I wanted to see him go down. I wanted to see him go down hard.
I wanted to see him have to attend traffic school every day for as long as he continued to draw a breath.
Now, I don’t think of myself as a vengeful person, but when someone tailgates you when you’re driving at a reasonable speed in the carpool lane, it is easy to become genuinely irritated. You can drive 90 to stay ahead of them. Or you can cross the double yellow lines to get out of their way. Either way, you become as guilty as they are of breaking the law. So I chose option number 3; cursing helplessly under my breath then dodging quickly out of his way when I finally came upon the break in the solid yellow lines. This guy needed to spend a few quality hours alone with a traffic school course.
As Johnny Rocket whizzed past me, I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. This speed demon who had been hugging my tail for countless hair-raising miles was driving in the carpool lane- ALONE! But wait, it gets better. Behind his behemoth muscle of a truck- he was towing a speedboat. Just minutes after he passed me, he was within feet of the next car in the carpool lane- ruthlessly tailgating them, as well. But this time he wasn’t waiting. He crossed over the double yellow lines to get out of the carpool lane on the right, and then crossed back over the double yellow lines again to return inches in front of the poor law-abiding soul. As he drove farther into the distance, I could see him rapidly approaching the backside of his next unsuspecting victim.
I was steaming and I was doing the math. Tailgating violation in this County- $134.00. Carpool lane – single passenger violation-$350.00. Towing a boat in the carpool lane – $134.00. Driving 85+ in a 65 mph zone while towing a boat – $ 350.00. Crossing over the double yellow lines of the carpool lane – $350.00. Passing without sufficient clearance – another $134.00. Come to think of it, just doing a little penance in traffic school would be too good for this guy.
Usually when you see the familiar reflection of a car with a red, white and blue light bar on the top of it in your rearview mirror, your knee-jerk reaction is to check your speed to be certain that you are innocent of all wrong-doing. My only thought when I saw the police car zooming up in my rearview mirror was, “Go get him, cowboy!”
Then my heart fell as I saw the officer pull to the far right lane and stay there. Didn’t he see the bad guy? Why was he hanging back? What the heck was he waiting for? Then it hit me. He’s pacing him. I felt a sickly, vengeful, glee-filled sneer of a smile spread across my face. This guy was going down. And I was going to get to see it.
They were pulling over to the side of the highway as I passed. The clueless offender who thought the rules of the road didn’t apply to him, and the uniformed hero who was about to show him the light. Not everyone who receives a traffic citation is quite so deserving. On this day, however, justice seemed very, very sweet.
I guess he’ll be spending some quality time participating in traffic school after all.
~
M. Pearl (formerly M. Groh-Gordy) is a former high school and college teacher who has been a traffic school owner and instructor since 1994. Her company, InterActive! Traffic School Online currently serves traffic violators in 6 states. Her column on automobile driving is published weekly in newspapers of the Los Angeles Newspaper Group and/or the online Motorways sections of 14 California publications.
HOV Lane: West Coast Lifestyle
