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Toyota Prius Driver Pulled Over for Starlink Dish on the Hood, Surprised

The weekend is here but, if you were hoping for a short break from stupid, absolutely senseless stuff, you were wrong. The California Highway Patrol has a new PSA of sorts for drivers, and it involves stating the obvious: don’t put satellite dishes on the hood of your moving car.
Driver straps Starlink satellite dish on the hood of his Toyota Prius 3 photos
Photo: Facebook / CHP - Antelope Valley
Driver straps Starlink satellite dish on the hood of his Toyota PriusDriver straps Starlink satellite dish on the hood of his Toyota Prius
This should be common sense. After all, if you strap stuff to your hood or against the windshield, you obstruct visibility and, one could argue, visibility is essential to not getting into crashes. But for one Toyota Prius driver, this needed to be stated out loud.

Jokes aside, this is a serious safety hazard, which is why the CHP is posting about it on social media in the first place. It has nothing to do with online shaming or cracking jokes, and everything to do with being responsible for the sake of safety.

This man was not: he strapped a Starlink satellite dish to the hood of his red Prius and, when asked if it did not hinder visibility when driving, he actually replied with “only when I make right turns.” According to CNBC, he also told the deputies that he runs his business out of his car, so he needs Wi-Fi service wherever his trips might take him. He was ticketed for a moving violation and, hopefully, the deputies had him remove the satellite dish from its location before letting him go.

“Yes, it is in fact illegal to mount a satellite dish to the hood of your vehicle, obstructing your view under section 26708(a)(2) of the California Vehicle Code,” the CHP says. Because it clearly needs saying. This also applies to stuff like “hang[ing] things from your rear view mirror, mount[ing] a GPS or cell phone in an unapproved location on your windshield, or display[ing] a handicap placard while the vehicle is in motion under this section.”

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About the author: Elena Gorgan
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Elena has been writing for a living since 2006 and, as a journalist, she has put her double major in English and Spanish to good use. She covers automotive and mobility topics like cars and bicycles, and she always knows the shows worth watching on Netflix and friends.
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