{"id":313165,"date":"2026-05-13T05:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/313165\/"},"modified":"2026-05-13T05:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-13T05:19:11","slug":"bay-area-driver-used-dummy-to-avoid-carpool-toll","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/313165\/","title":{"rendered":"Bay Area driver used dummy to avoid carpool toll"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Bay Area driver was cited after trying to pass off a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/photo?fbid=1440377204783992&amp;set=a.307730071382050\" data-link=\"native\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" class=\"\">faceless dummy<\/a> as a passenger while using a carpool lane, the California Highway Patrol\u2019s Hayward office said Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>The agency posted a photo showing the decoy buckled into the front passenger seat, dressed in a blue hoodie, jeans, a red cloth covering and a brimmed hat pulled low.<\/p>\n<p>CHP said the driver apparently used the fake passenger to justify setting the FasTrak Flex transponder to a carpool occupancy level.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTheir partner lacked one important detail,\u201d the agency said. \u201cA face.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>CHP Hayward said its officers issued the driver a toll evasion citation.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The case is the latest example of a Bay Area driver accused of using a prop to get around carpool or express lane rules.<\/p>\n<p>Under Bay Area FasTrak rules, drivers using FasTrak Flex tags are responsible for setting the switch to match the number of people in the vehicle.<\/p>\n<p>In express lanes,\u00a0CHP enforces occupancy rules; when a tag is set to \u201c2\u201d or \u201c3+,\u201d officers may be alerted that the vehicle is claiming carpool eligibility and can visually confirm whether the vehicle qualifies, according to Bay Area FasTrak.<\/p>\n<p>High-occupancy vehicle lanes and express lane rules vary by corridor.<\/p>\n<p>Some lanes require two or more occupants, while others require three or more for toll-free or discounted travel. According to officials, an occupant is defined as a person using a safety restraint, such as a seat belt \u2014 not a dummy, mannequin or Halloween decoration.<\/p>\n<p>An HOV lane violation carries a minimum $490 fine in California, according to Caltrans, and the cost can be higher for repeat offenders or when local administrative fees are added.<\/p>\n<p>CHP Hayward put the warning more bluntly: \u201cHOV occupants need to be actual people, not your arts and crafts project.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Bay Area driver was cited after trying to pass off a faceless dummy as a passenger while&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":313166,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[184,7,723,332,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-313165","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-bay-area","tag-california","tag-crime","tag-east-bay","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313165","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=313165"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/313165\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/313166"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=313165"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=313165"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=313165"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}