Taylor Kinney avoided traffic ticket thanks to 'fake firefighter' role

Taylor Kinney caught a lucky break and escaped a traffic ticket when a police officer recognised him from TV - and let him go.

The Chicago Fire star, who is one of Lady Gaga's exes, insisted he has never "pulled the card" and tried to curry favour with real-life emergency responders just because he plays a firefighter on the show, but he did once avoid a serious moving violation thanks to the role.

"It was raining, it was cold, the traffic was really really bad... so I hopped off onto the median to the right side (of the road) and just started passing all the traffic, all the cars, in what would be either a bus or service lane," Kinney recalled during a chat with Kelly Clarkson on her U.S. daytime talk show.

He quickly realised he'd messed up when he was pulled over by a cop in a police car.

"I think, 'I'm going to get ticketed and in trouble,'" Kinney shared.

Recollecting the incident, he explained: "The police officer walks up, I take my helmet off, and he goes, 'Oh it's you, the fake firefighter'."

He went on: "We had a laugh and a chuckle and he made fun of me a little bit, and then he let me go. He said, 'Get home safe, don't do that again. And I like the show'."

The actor added: "That's my get out of jail free card."