Traffic drives past one of the highway signs that warn drivers to stay out of the left lane near El Reno. [Photo by Chris Landsberger, The Oklahoman Archives]

Early one morning last November, Darren Fields was driving home after celebrating an Oklahoma City Thunder win against the Los Angeles Clippers when the lights of an Oklahoma Highway Patrol trooper lit up his car.

The trooper had been following Fields, 25, for a while as he drove down the left lane of Interstate 40 eastbound. But it wasn't until Fields moved over to the right lane that the trooper flipped on his lights.

Ten days prior, a new state law had taken effect, forbidding motorists on a four-lane highway to travel in the left lane. The description of the violation on the tickets describes the violation as impeding the flow of traffic in the left lane, but Fields said there was no traffic on the road to impede.

"There were maybe two other cars where I was at," he said.