Posted on 01/19/2015 7:19:26 AM PST by BobNative
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — An Alabama man says he was cited by Cobb County police for “eating while driving” under the distracted driving law.
Madison Turner said he ordered a double quarter pounder with cheese from McDonald’s last week, and a police officer pulled him over, along Canton Road in Marietta.
“The officer explained to me that he observed me eating a burger for 2 miles,” Madison said. “He said specifically three times, you can’t just go down the road eating a hamburger.”
According to the ticket, the officer wrote him up under Georgia’s distracted driving law, and under the comments sections wrote “eating while driving.”
That law reads, in part: “A driver shall exercise due care in operating a motor vehicle on the highways of this state and shall not engage in any actions which shall distract such driver from the safe operation of such vehicle.”
“Maybe I was enjoying the burger too much I needed to tone it down. I was certainly willing to do so but I didn’t expect to be fined or punished,” Madison said.
“If this was the law, I’d have to hire more attorneys because everybody does it including me,” said William Head, a longtime traffic and DUI attorney, who is not representing Turner.
“I’ve only seen something like this charge when there’s an accident. There was no accident here so the fact that this man was charged with eating and driving is a first for me,” Head said. Head added that law was very vague.
“Maybe if you had a giant pizza in both hands and you weren’t holding the wheel or maybe if you had a watermelon, half watermelon and you were just diving into it holding it with both hands, maybe that would be something,” Head said.
A spokesperson for Cobb County police said they could not comment, since the case is ongoing. Madison has a court date on Feb. 3.
show me the person, I will show you the crime.
Changing the radio station, or admonishing a child passenger, would be “distracted driving” under this statute. The law needs to be changed (or, more appropriately, repealed).
Chicken nuggets in one hand, Hot Mustard sauce cup (yay, it's back at McD's!) in the other, steering with my knee. That's how I roll.
Oh...given the location...I thought...
He was eating Corn-on-the-Cobb....
which is clearly a 2 handed operation
...and worthy of a ticket.
I think the law itself is fairly common but seldom enforced.
I remember years ago an episode of CHIPS where one of their officers was cited for it after a minor accident.
At least a guy chomping on a burger or drinking a shake will set it down once in a while to swallow.
Sounds racist.
Everything is illegal.
That lets them arrest anyone at any time for any reason.
It’s right out of Atlas Shrugged. It’s about controlling the peasants and keeping them in their place.
Cross examination of the cop would be fun. I think it might take me 2 or 3 days.
A German I knew was scolded for this, and he quickly replied, “I don’t drive with my mouth!”
Gotta love quotas.
Again let's hear from the FR jackbook lickers how "the police are on our side."
The law itself is a good idea. But it requires good judgment on the part of police, which is something that is increasingly lacking. I can’t imagine that simply taking a bite or two of a hamburger or a sip or two of coffee while driving is, in and of itself, “distracting.” But cops on a power trip or that fundamentally don’t understand that judgment is part of their jobs can apply the law in crazy ways.
Soup is the worst when driving.
McDonald’s used to sell the McDLT and those damn things were a hazard because you had to assemble them.
The ‘force’ must have been given orders to increase revenue generation via ‘tickets’.
“He said specifically three times, you can’t just go down the road eating a hamburger.”......
...& as the cop drove away he completed his report on his laptop up and running and docked next to him while texting his mistress on his cell phone
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