Need to pack everything but the kitchen sink into your Honda Ridgeline this holiday season, but running out of vertical space? Cops hate this one weird trick, but as it turns out, they can stop you. And then they’ll cite you, take a picture, and blast you on social media for illegally (and unsafely) overloading your car.
This Honda Ridgeline wasn’t just overloaded, it was over-everythinged. If you look carefully amidst the large helping of stuff, you’ll see deliberately placed Christmas decorations. That white squiggly thing on the tailgate is not some sort of strap securing items in place, dear reader. That is a string of lights. We have talked about this, folks.
The California Highway Patrol office in Madera posted the photo to Facebook earlier this week along with the details of the stop. If nothing else, they’re entirely predictable.
“This vehicle was observed traveling southbound on SR-99, in the area of Avenue 18 1/2. Due to its unsafe load, debris kept flying off onto the roadway,” the post said.
“It is important to always secure your load/cargo and not exceed your vehicle’s load capacity. It can make it difficult and unsafe to operate. Flying debris can make motorists take evasive action and potentially be involved in a traffic crash,” it continued.
Several commenters shared their encounters with the precariously loaded Ridgeline; one even offered their own photo of the rig underway. Another claimed to have met the driver hanging out in a parking lot. While such a story may normally strain credibility, we’re talking about somebody who was pulled over for hauling half of Santa’s workshop in a Honda. Life imitates art, and in this case, that art is the Grinch’s sleigh.
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