SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is dedicated to spotlighting issues and concerns about how Utah's roads can be made safer. Recently, we received a query from James Wright who asked, "There seems to be no enforcement of the Express/HOV lane in Utah. People use it as a passing lane or get in it if traffic is heavy. Why isn't UHP enforcing the HOV rules?"
So I reached out to Utah Highway Patrol to find out more.
"We do have a lot of people that don't use the HOV lane correctly," answered Lt. Cameron Roden of Utah Highway Patrol. "This is not for others in general lanes to try to pass so if you're in the fast lane and come to these areas you cannot use that lane to pass other vehicles in front of you."
So what is being done about HOV rule breakers? According to UHP, they attempt to enforce violations as often as they can.
"There is a lot of things that troopers are doing throughout their day, they are responding to crashes, blocking vehicles all sorts of things so as far as focusing on HOV specifically all day long, we wish we had more time to do that," Lt. Roden explained.
Those fines are costly, too. Most HOV lane citations start at around $260 and go up from there.
Unfortunately, most Utahns tend to violate the HOV rules when troopers are spread thin according to officials.
"Usually at those times when there is peak traffic troopers are tied up in crashes and other things," Lt. Roden stated. "That is why you do not see as much enforcement during those times, it is because they are busy doing other activities."
Troopers say they want help from the public by focusing on what they can control behind the wheel... themselves.
"Everybody is trying to get to where they're going," Roden stressed. "Everybody is in a hurry we need to respect each other and rive calm and just focus on ourselves and our driving,"
DRIVEN TO CHANGE
