Category: Cars

On my way into work yesterday I had a close call with The Law. Cruising southbound on I-5 Express Lanes in Seattle near 70th street. The Express Lanes are usually a pretty “safe” spot as they are a place where I have only seen the State Patrol doing speed enforcement work maybe three times in 20+ years. But, following my own advice, I was in the right-hand lane rather than over in the “fast lane” (Number 5) and I was exceeding the speed limit by a margin I’m not willing to admit. Not “autobahn speeds” by any stretch, but certainly faster than the posted limit, and even a bit faster than other cars around me. As the road made a wide right-hand bend my detector (Number 1)went off, and I immediately slowed down(Number 7). WAAAAY over on the left shoulder of the road was a Washington State Trooper, his Crown Vic parked right up against the concrete jersey barrier. He was wedged in the open driver’s side door, pointing his LIDAR device at me. I watched as I slowed down, and he dropped the LIDAR from his eye and looked at me, then looked around at the surrounding traffic, “tagged me” again with his SMD, then looked at me again. I surmise that he was weighing the risk & probability of success of climbing in and pursuing me. As I had already slowed to the posted speed limit, and traffic was pretty thick at the time, I guess he decided to let me go and get back to the low-hanging fruit in the fast lane.

It all happened right about here (don’t bother with Street View) as it does not cover the Express Lanes)

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Thank you Officer… should we ever meet again I’ll buy you a beer. 😉