For something that merited a police traffic stop, it does not sound like much: “eating while driving.” But that is what a police officer wrote on the citation he issued Jan. 10 after he pulled over the 2009 BMW that H. Madison Turner was driving through suburban Atlanta.
The citation, which Mr. Turner plans to contest during a court appearance next month, has renewed the debate about the extent to which states should regulate driving distractions that include the enduring, like music, and the contemporary, like tools for texting and navigation.
Although automobile safety specialists have long blamed preoccupied motorists for many accidents, law enforcement agencies are still calibrating their use of far-reaching statutes.
“Frankly, we’re struggling with how to apply distracted driving laws,” said Jonathan Adkins, the executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, a Washington-based group. “This case in Georgia is a reminder that you can’t legislate common sense. You won’t be able to ban every dumb behavior behind the wheel.”
Such limits have not kept law enforcement officials from cautioning drivers across the country that certain behaviors, even if they are not explicitly barred by lawmakers, can lead to fines.
“While many recent campaigns focus on cellphone use, traditional interruptions such as changing the music, eating or settling arguments between children can be just as distracting, and just as deadly,” the Maryland Highway Safety Office says on its website.
The law under which Mr. Turner was ticketed is broad: “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.” An exception allows the “proper use” of cellphones.
But there is no overt prohibition of driving with a hamburger in hand, although experts have said that eating can put motorists and others on the road at risk.
In 2012, a University of Leeds researcher found that driver response times increased by 44 percent when they were eating. The analysis came soon after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that two-thirds of passengers said they felt, at worst, “a little less safe” when a driver was eating or drinking.
To see the original article go to The New York Times.
