Eating while driving: Man’s burger gets him a traffic ticket
MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) -- A man says enjoying a double quarter-pounder with cheese as he cruised down a highway outside Atlanta got him in trouble with the law - and a ticket for eating while driving.
Madison Turner of Alabama told WSB-TV that the officer told him three times: "You can't just go down the road eating a hamburger." He was ticketed for violating Georgia's distracted driving law; Turner said the officer told him he had been eating the McDonald's burger for about 2 miles.
"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 told the Atlanta station.
In an email to The Associated Press early Tuesday, Cobb County police spokesman Mike Bowman said the department would not comment about the case.
William Head, a longtime traffic lawyer who is not representing Turner, said he doesn't recall seeing a case quite like this one.
Georgia's distracted driver law does not mention food. It says only that drivers can't engage in actions that distract them from operating a vehicle safely.
"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.
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