I'm in trouble

Man ticketed in ATL for eating while driving:

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/man-cited-eating-while-driving-cobb-county/njrGY/

Crap.

Was it you? Or do you do this all the time in hotlanta?

I have trouble fitting a cheeseburger in my miata, much less eating one while driving.

No, it wasn't me.

But I eat in my truck almost every day.

Don't worry. It's just a fluke. I went out for the paper and a coffee this am and saw the police at the donut shop getting take out. They looked fixed to be eating in the car themselves.

I think the law sounds reasonable, eating is probably just as distracting as texting.

If you're driving your vehicle why would you want to do anything besides drive?

I might be less coordinated than some but I use two hands to eat a cheeseburger and I look at it before taking a bite.

So, I'd be going down the road with zero hands on the wheel, cruise set at 70mph (local interstate limit), staring at my cheeseburger, unaware of what's happening around my vehicle.

Would you compete in an Autocross or Rallycross while eating?

In reply to The_Jed:

That's not a bad idea. I can see it now, timed run and you have to finish the food. At a local autocross you start with eating French fries, regionals you get a cheeseburger, nationals you get soup.

In reply to Ojala:

When we teach Street Survival we do this with texting. The students have to text the instructor a message while navigating cones to drive home how much of a distraction it is. Scalding soup in an open bowl for the championship, LOL.

It never occurred to me to turn it into something you could get good at instead of preventing it

If eating is dangerous, then so is a cup of coffee or a donut.

I guess cup holders won't be necessary any more.

Maybe we will need to outlaw drive thrus at McDonalds.

I am so happy to have Uncle NannySam to protect me from the dangerous cheeseburger.

From the article.

The 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.”

Typical modern day law. So much subjectivity that on any given day you could be cited for anything.

Hands 9 and 3 (10 and 2) gaze fixed ahead...

SVreX wrote: Maybe we will need to outlaw drive thrus at McDonalds. I am so happy to have Uncle NannySam to protect me from the dangerous cheeseburger.

I'm the last person who would advocate for any nanny state interference, I despise traction control, stability control, yaw control, and ridiculous laws. I would prefer people learn car control instead. This law makes sense.

I'm not the smartest nor the most educated guy around but, I think the original idea for the drive through was to get the food, drive home, then eat it. Or buy it, hand it back to the kids who are spazzing due to it being lunch time and you were so busy running errands you didn't make time to drive home and cook, then continue with what you were doing.

SVreX wrote: If eating is dangerous, then so is a cup of coffee or a donut. I guess cup holders won't be necessary any more.

I agree.

I break this law every single day then.

And will continue to do so.

As an aside: how many of you live where there are drive through liquor stores? We have them and they seem like wildly bad ideas.

The_Jed wrote: This law makes sense.

I tried to give you a pass, but can't.

Your statement is absurd.

The law is pathetic. It can hold people accountable for ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING, if the officer focuses on the "distracted" part. Kids in the back seat, conversation with other occupants, smoking a cigarette, idle thought, glance to the side of the road, fight with your wife the night before, reflection on the windshield, paying too much attention to an engine noise, anything. How about paying attention to a police siren??- sounds distracted to me.

But at the same time, the law can hold people accountable for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, if the judge decides to focus on the words "safe operation". This is COMPLETELY subjective, and defined ENTIRELY by the individual's skills and capabilities. 110 MPH is safe to some drivers, or any other number of distractions.

I am really surprised that you are serious on this. I thought you were being sarcastic.

With a law worded that terribly, I guarantee I could get off with no charges in virtually any court in the land.

It serves only 1 purpose. Raising revenue for local municipalities (which is illegal in most states).

I would also suggest that traction control, stability control, yaw control, etc go MUCH further in actually identifying real dangers and protecting real drivers in the real world than any cheesburger law ever could.

Though I am not a fan of them either.

The thing is, there's a difference between for instance, taking a sip of water from a bottle or maybe eating a candy bar, and eating a half a watermelon (as the article used as an example.) For that matter, is doing something like adjusting the heater or changing the radio station considered a distraction as well. The trick is determining what level of distraction is too much.

Giant Purple Snorklewacker wrote: Scalding soup in an open bowl for the championship,

My brother was once passed on the freeway by a woman eating a bowl of soup while driving.

In reply to stuart in mn:

Has anyone ever actually SEEN someone trying to eat half a watermelon while driving?

Yeah, didn't think so.

The law is designed to let officers pull you over at will.

The officer claimed he “observed him eating a burger for 2 miles”.

The officer was therefore driving distracted. He was busy watching some guy eat a hamburger while he was driving down the road.

That is no better than watching a DVD.

Ojala wrote: In reply to The_Jed: That's not a bad idea. I can see it now, timed run and you have to finish the food. At a local autocross you start with eating French fries, regionals you get a cheeseburger, nationals you get soup.

Soup can be chugged/guzzled. It's really hard to swallow an entire cheeseburger in one bite without chewing.

In reply to Knurled:

This is why the soup must be SCALDING. You must learn to balance or build up scar tissue.

I have actually watched someone (an un-named family member) eat a hamburger with a large soda between his legs WHILE talking AND texting on a cellphone in a manual shift car WHILE aggressively negotiating ATL traffic ON ROUTE to his own wedding.

Yeah, I yelled at him.

But he would whoop your azzes on an autocross course!

good, lock em up.

I'm sick of having to avoid the ever growing number of dumb berkeleying shiny happy people on the road doing everything other than paying attention to actually driving.

If we keep allowing stupid laws like this, it's only a matter of time before someone outlaws a stick shift, since they are such a distraction to driving.

It's a LOT easier to operate a hamburger than a clutch.