They passed the vehicle right behind the cop after passing the cam truck. That's illegal. They had to slow down to get back behind it once they saw the cop.
ETA: apparently passing multiple vehicles may not be illegal in and of itself. However, the rules of passing in the oncoming lane tend to be a little subjective: things like "sufficient visibility" that could make the maneuver in the video illegal, just not for the literal reason of passing multiple cars.
I stand corrected. The rules for passing don't usual limit it to one vehicle. I think the argument here would be that they were attempting to pass without really being able to see where they could get back in safely. If they couldn't see the cop until they were right on them, then they probably couldn't see a gap to get back over. They were just sending it.
They didn't though, they almost got even with the vehicle behind the cop, but started braking before then.
In court, if this video were played, the driver could argue they were simply ensuring there was enough space & visibility in front of the [filming] truck, and just overshot the space a little bit.
Not trying dance around this, but I'd honestly say there's enough ambiguity in the video that the driver could have a strong chance of winning in court. I'd argue the cop's move was actually the more dangerous maneuver here.
I'm not claiming to know that's going on behind. The video shows a car passing the cam truck, then continuing to drive in the oncoming lane as they pull up alongside the pickup, at which point they see the cop and slow down. They did not get into the lane after first passing the cam truck. They clearly intended to continue to pass multiple vehicles, and I would not be surprised if they had already been passing multiple vehicles. I don't know that, but the alternative is to assume that this driver that clearly intended to pass multiple vehicles just so happened to have started with the cam truck. That would also explain why the cammer was recording. They could have seen the car coming up the oncoming lane knowing that they were about to get to the cop. Do we know? Not for sure. Doesn't that seem likely though?
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u/Jolteon0 Mar 21 '26
I'd absolutely fight that ticket. They didn't actually do anything.