Rachel Stockman
WSB-TV – Atlanta
COBB COUNTY, Ga. — An Alabama
man says he was cited by police in Cobb County, Georgia, 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 in Marietta, an Atlanta suburb.
“The officer explained to me
that he observed me eating a burger for two miles,” Turner 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 section 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,” Turner 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 representative for Cobb
County police said they could not comment, since the case is ongoing. Madison
has a court date on Feb. 3.
