A tardy Georgia State intern is facing numerous traffic offenses after she led Gwinnett County police on a chase down the Interstate 86 HOV lane on January 31. Upon her arrest, she told police that she was late getting to her internship at Georgia State.
According to the Gwinnett Daily Post, the chase began when a Gwinnett County police officer spotted the 24-year-old Oakwood student racing down the HOV lane in a black Mistubishi Eclipse without any passengers. The HOV lane (or High Occupancy Vehicle lane) is reserved for carpoolers to aid in the flow of traffic during peak traffic times.
The police officer began pursuing the vehicle, which accelerated and swerved right across all six lanes of traffic on I-85. The vehicle then careened down the shoulder, reaching up to 80 mph during the chase. I-85 traffic in the lanes next to the shoulder was only moving at about 10 mph.
The speeding driver was finally forced back into normal highway lanes when she came upon a police officer's vehicle stopped in the right shoulder to ticket another motorist. The fleeing motorist swerved left back into traffic, before exiting I-85. She was eventually pulled over at a busy intersection near the exit.
The driver was arrested and booked at the Gwinnett County jail around 11 a.m. on numerous traffic violations including: reckless driving, eluding a police officer, HOV lane violation, unsafe lane change and passing an emergency vehicle.
Source: Gwinnett Daily Post, HOV violation leads to police chase on I-85, 1/31/11
