Car-Pool Dummy Busted
In many respects, Kevin Morgan's carpooling companion is the perfect passenger. He's never late for his ride, he always wears his seat belt, and he doesn't talk incessantly over the radio. But he doesn't have a pulse, and sometimes that can be a major drawback.

Morgan, 28, of Petaluma was slapped with a $351 citation in Marinwood yesterday for driving in a carpool lane with a kickboxing dummy propped up in the passenger seat, the California Highway Patrol said.

The dummy, wearing a seatbelt and dressed smartly in a baseball cap and a Miami Dolphins windbreaker, might even have passed for a real human. But CHP Officer Will Thompson couldn't help noticing one minor detail: Morgan's passenger was a torso without legs.

"When I looked inside his window, I thought, 'Oh, that's cute,'" Thompson said. "I didn't even ask him where he got it. I think he was pretty embarrassed because all the people driving by were laughing."

Thompson, a patrolman for the past 15 years, including 10 in Marin, has made something of a specialty out of flushing out carpool violators. During the morning commute, he often parks his patrol car right next to the southbound carpool lane between Ignacio and Lucas Valley Road. Then he stands up on his door rail so he can look down into the cars as they approach.

The high vantage point allowed him to spot Morgan's legless companion at a distance. After stopping Morgan, Thompson hauled the torso out of the passenger seat and plunked it down on the freeway shoulder to enlighten the passing commuters.

"I think about the only thing he said was, 'Well, that didn't help me very much today, did it?'" Thompson said. "I said, 'No, it didn't.'

"He wasn't too worried about the torso, but he wanted the jacket. I told him after it gets adjudicated he could come and get it."

Bogus carpool passengers are a longstanding phenomenon of modern life. In 2002, a woman driving with a mannequin - complete with a wig, a sweater and makeup - darted into a carpool lane near Seattle and caused a series of pileups involving six cars and two buses, according to new reports. Fifteen students on a class trip were injured.

Carpool dummies have even been dragged into political debates.

"Carpool lanes are making criminals out of people who are simply trying to make it to work on time," California Assemblyman Ray Haynes, a Riverside Republican, wrote in a 2000 editorial against carpool lanes. "Some motorists have used imaginative deceptions to appear eligible for carpool lanes. Some have been caught with dummies in the passenger seat. Others have carried infant car seats without infants. One pregnant woman insisted that her unborn child was a passenger."

At least one company, Archie McPhee Toys, Gifts and Novelties of Seattle, markets a 5-foot-6-inch female mannequin for use in traffic.

"These sleek, hard vinyl mannequins are perfect for dressing up and propping in the passenger seat so you can use the carpool lane," the company Web site attests. The cost is $225.

Even in Marin, carpool dummies are not unheard of, police say. But they are rare.

"I've been here seven years and I think this is the third time I've seen this happen," said Lt. Charles McLaughlin, a supervisor in the CHP's Corte Madera office.

"I've heard a lot of excuses, but I've never had a dummy," said Thompson. "I found it humorous at the lengths some people will go."

Morgan could not be reached for comment.