An Alabama man was ticketed by a police officer in Cobb County, Ga. last week for driving while eating a cheeseburger.
Just before Madison Turner could indulge in his McDonald’s double quarter pounder, a police officer pulled him over for “eating while driving.”
That happens?
“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.”
Turner was ticketed under the state of Georgia’s distracted driving law, which states that “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.
Attorney William Head says Turner did not cause an accident; therefore, he should not be held accountable.
“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.
Turner will report to court on Feb. 3. The ticket amount is unknown.
According to a 2012 study from the University of Leeds, eating while driving is more dangerous than we think. In fact, drivers who eat behind the wheel have a 44 percent slower reaction time than usual. It is more significant than being on the phone (37.4%) or driving while intoxicated at the legal limit (12.5%).
