I was driving down I-94 when suddenly my stomach sank as I looked up to my review mirror and saw the flashing lights everyone fears. Not wanting to turn this little incident into a Michael Bay car-chase scene, I obligingly turned into the right lane (I had been in the far left).

Suddenly – and belligerently – the Indiana state trooper pulled up to my left, veered awfully close to my vehicle and signaled for me to pull to the left.

To the left? Every Michiganian knows you pull over to the right side on the highway, not the left.

It just makes sense. If you pull to the far left, you’re parked right next to the fastest lane on the highway – not to mention the cars are whizzing past you at 70 mph.

However, logic doesn’t always win over irrationality. The cop continued to point to the left as I confusedly continued to pull over to the right. Humorously, the state trooper ended up parking on the left side of the highway, while I ended up parking on the right. We were both parked, staring each other down for a good five minutes.

Through the traffic, I still could make out that he was emphatically, angrily pointing in front of his car, as if I could magically swerve past four lanes of traffic.

Finally, he decided to pull in front of me instead. By the time he walked up to my car, he was already shouting and hollering, saying, “If I tell you to pull over to the left, you pull over to the left!”

“I apologize,” I said, “you see, I’m from Michigan and we normally pull over to the right side of the highway, instead of the left, as a safety precaution.”

“You will go where I tell you to go.”

The man sounded like a broken record, yet I ignored his discourteous tone and nodded politely. After all, my own father is a cop, and I always have believed in showing respect for those who protect and serve. But he was quickly turning into an exception.

I ended up with a ticket for failing to pull over. To get an idea of the seriousness of this ticket, this is the same thing blurry-faced people get on the show “Cops” when they deliberately ignore a police officer’s lights and continue to barrel down the road. This little episode got me eight points on my license and a chance of losing my driver’s license for a year.

Needless to say, I’m going to take another trip to Indiana this summer and contest this in court.

Which brings me back to my point. Perhaps if each state wasn’t allowed to make whatever arbitrary rule they liked, people wouldn’t be so confused when a police officer gives them orders.

I’ve also heard of someone getting a ticket for pulling to the left side of the highway in Michigan. If only he had been in Indiana and I had been in Michigan, neither of us would have gotten something so drastic.

To get eight points over a legal misunderstanding is absolutely ludicrous. Since highways move across interstate boundaries, it simply seems like legal common sense they should fall under the jurisdiction of federal law. This way each state doesn’t create a law of its own.

This especially should be the case for Indiana. Not to be too cruel to Indiana, but when I see their sign, “The Crossroads of America,” I can’t help but think to myself, “In other words, nowhere?”

In such a nothing state, I wouldn’t be surprised if they find themselves giving out tickets just to get more money into the hands of the government. This provides room for corruption.

There are a lot of rights a state should keep. Traffic violations, though, are too petty and damaging. They should just be left to federal law.

_Isaac DeVille is an MSU English senior and a State News columnist. Reach him at devillei@msu.edu