LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The new HOV lanes have opened on the I-15 and the Nevada Highway Patrol is out enforcing them.

Today an NHP trooper pulled over a Chrysler Town and Country hearse in the HOV lane owned by a local funeral home near the Spring Mountain Road exit.

When the trooper told the driver he was stopped for an HOV violation, the driver motioned to the casket and said, "He doesn’t count?"

The driver was dead serious.

Having been given a break, the driver was not cited and advised to move out of the HOV lane.

NHP had the following statement, "We don’t want to beat the rules of the HOV lanes to death but you must have a living, breathing human occupying the seats in the vehicle to be in compliance with HOV lane rules."