Troopers cracking down on left-lane drivers

SEATTLE — You probably do it every day, but driving in the left-hand lane -- unless you’re passing -- is illegal.

Beginning Wednesday and for the rest of the week the Washington State Patrol is cracking down on violators who troopers say pose a serious safety risk to themselves and others.

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Less than five minutes into our ride-along with Trooper Heather Axtman, she nabbed a violator on I-5 near Lynnwood.

“I’m stopping you for camping out in the left-hand lane,” she told the man.

Axtman says more than 13,000 drivers are stopped by State Patrol every year for driving in the left-hand lane, and those are just the ones they catch.

“It’s actually a huge problem,” she explained.

It's a problem, Axtman says, when the left lane is needed for emergency vehicles, because slow driving in the left lane often leads to road rage and because a lot of people don't realize it's against the law.

“Are you cognitive that you’re over there or were you just driving along?” Axtman asked the driver.

“I was just driving along,” he replied.

Amber Tryon, another driver Axtman busted, told us she thought staying out of the left lane was more of a suggestion.

“I didn’t realize it was a law. I thought it was a courtesy,” Tryon explained.

But of course she knows now, and Axtman says that’s the point -- education, not necessarily ticketing.

Tryon left with a new understanding of the law and a warning. A ticket would have cost her $136.

Cox Media Group