Q&A - Dead Body in Hearse Qualify for HOV Lane Use?

Question: Can a funeral home employee use the HOV lane after picking of a deceased person when transferring to funeral home from place of death?  Would the deceased person qualify as a second person for the HOV lane with the driver?

Interesting question!

Definition of HOV

"high occupancy vehicle" means

(a) a bus, or

(b) a vehicle under 5 500 Kg GVW that is carrying at least the minimum number of persons specified by the applicable traffic control device;

What is a Person?

The Motor Vehicle Act Regulations does not define what a person is. When that is the case, then other laws or the dictionary are the fallback to try and find context.

A person is considered to be a person when they are alive, and in the case of a foetus, it is not considered to become a person until after fully birthed.

Dead People Don't Count as Passengers for HOV Lanes

So, your deceased does not count at all and the pregnant woman only counts as one, herself.

An Electric Hearse

One way around this doesn't involve a body count. Electric vehicles displaying the required decal could use an HOV lane with just the live driver and dead body inside.

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