Local-Motion

So, I was driving in on the Long Island Expressway Wednesday when I learned firsthand that sometimes there really is justice in the world. It was shortly after 6 a.m. Heading east, I came around a turn on the stretch just after Exit 39 to see a Nassau County Highway Patrol officer in an unmarked police car -- fresh off a traffic stop, I might add -- shut off his flashing lights and merge back into traffic. Drivers in the line of cars ahead of me began to slow down. Behind the wheel of my Mini Cooper S, I downshifted from sixth to fifth. The driver of the Hummer behind me, however, had different ideas. He had been just far enough back to have cleared the bend in the road too late to see that the unmarked police cruiser was, in fact, just that. He went around me, went around the line of cars, went past the highway patrol officer and began to hang on the bumper of some guy doing the limit in the fast lane. I watched as the cop, still in the slow lane, hung back a bit to pace the Hummer. Then, the driver of the Hummer -- impatient as he was -- committed the absolute cardinal sin: He crossed the dividing line and jumped into the HOV lane to go around the car ahead of him. This, of course, is very dangerous. Oh, and illegal. Which is why, of course, there's only something like a million signs warning drivers not to cross the divided line. But, the Hummer driver did. And, like that, the cop in the unmarked car jumped three lanes of traffic and then into the HOV lane behind him. Then, he lit him up. At last check the duo had moved all the way back to the righthand shoulder just shy of Exit 40. Would have loved to hear that explanation.