First Ticket for Eating Fast Food While Driving?Amanda Warren Matt Turner of Alabama conscientiously drove through Marietta, Georgia last week when an officer told him, you cant just go down the road eating a hamburger. Heres where it gets creepy: the officer had been watching him eat the burger for around two miles. Turner said: The officer explained to me that he observed me eating a burger for 2 miles, he said specifically three times, you cant just go down the road eating a hamburger. Maybe I was enjoying the burger too much I needed to tone it down. I was certainly willing to do so but I didnt expect to be fined or punished. Sadly, it doesnt appear he was being sarcastic when he said, Maybe I was enjoying the burger too much I needed to tone it down. No one should live in such fear of chewing, that they cant enjoy a fry on their way home while driving safely So on what basis could a ticket like this even be written? On the ticket, the officer cited turner under Georgias distracted driving law, which is written so vaguely that it is entirely up to the officers discretion to decide if a driver is distracted or not. In the comments section of the ticket, the officer wrote eating while driving. The law says 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. Its difficult not to laugh when you hear what traffic and DUI attorney William Head told WSBTV News he found the law vague, but still hard to uphold: If this was the law, Id have to hire more attorneys because everybody does it including me Ive only seen something like this charge when theres an accident. There was no accident here so the fact that this man was charged with eating and driving is a first for me. Maybe if you had a giant pizza in both hands and you werent 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. That scenario conjures images of Homer Simpson for me. Or, of police who routinely use all of their electronics while flying down the road like theyre operating the Starship Enterprise. But Jean-Luc Picard checked the view every now and then, and did not run people down by being distracted while driving. Although Turner will fight the ticket on February 3rd, one wonders what will happen if tickets like these are upheld. Will cops abandon their normal revenue-gathering watch posts? Will church lots, speed traps and local tavern lots be free from tire marks as cops lick their chops outside fast food joints waiting for the first one out of line who steals a french fry in motion? Will drug-sniffing dogs be trained to hit a vehicle if they smell some special sauce? Will radar guns be equipped to detect loosened sesame seeds under floor mats? Another unfortunate result of such situations, is that they give the local news too much pleasure in demonstrating to the public how best to behave in order to keep from getting beat up, locked up or even raped by police. A news anchor reenacts what happened to Turner and the quarter-pounder as well as the proper way to drive. They emphasize that the demonstration takes place in a parked car. Notice how she quotes the department (they wouldnt comment on the ticket) and says, you must exercise due care and do nothing inside your car that might make you distracted. Getting pulled over for the wrong reason was just upheld by the Supreme Court. Add to that, getting ticketed or jailed for absurd reasons and you have a great mass training in fearful submission. Its beginning to look like people will have to white-knuckle it if they dare to exercise the privilege to travel. Recently fromAmanda Warren: 