Last time I got pulled over, Ponch & John told my passenger to put some clothes on.
Posted on 01/15/2006 10:45:48 AM PST by presidio9
A fetus doesn't count as a passenger in the carpool lane, an Arizona judge has ruled.
The Phoenix Municipal Court decision doesn't affect drivers in high-occupancy-vehicle lanes around, say, Vancouver or Toronto, but it addresses a thorny question that may have occurred to some.
Candace Dickinson, 23, of Ahwatukee Foothills, Ariz., got a ticket for driving alone in an HOV lane on Interstate 10 on Nov. 8. She fought it in court on grounds that she was pregnant at the time, the Arizona Republic reported.
Judge Dennis Freeman rejected her argument on Tuesday. For HOV purposes, a person is someone who occupies a separate and distinct space in a vehicle, he said.
The officer who stopped Dickinson, Sgt. Dave Norton, said she told him there were two people in the car and pointed to "her obvious pregnancy," the Associated Press reported.
Dickinson's theory, he said, "would require officers to carry guns, radios and pregnancy testers, and I don't think we want to go there."
An Arizona Department of Public Safety official said a vehicle can't be in an HOV lane at rush hour unless two or more people are in it.
"If a [pregnant] mother goes to a movie theatre, she's not going to pay for her child."
Dickinson, who has since given birth to a boy, faces $390 US in fines.
good
Someone tried this a few years ago in regard to the Virginia HOV lanes, and the judge rightly threw it out. IMHO, they should add fines for wasting the court's time.
Could Sybil use the hov lane?
I can completely understand the judge's reasoning here.
I feel sorry for this poor child. Mom is a moron!
I thought "I'm pregnant" was a legitimate excuse for ANYTHING a woman does.
I love the people with the blow up dolls and maniquins in their cars!
Except for the fact that the Phoenix judge just effectively ruled that the unborn are not people .
Personally, I believe HOV lanes should only be available to vehicles transporting two or more people who have drivers licenses.
My husband and I were in a Northern Virginia HOV-2 lane one day, and a police cruiser pulled in, lights flashing, behind a car near us which appeared to have a lone woman in it. We could see the woman saying something, and a little hand came up from the back seat waving a teddy bear. The cop turned his lights off and pulled away, and my husband and I laughed for the rest of the trip into town. :-D
My thoughts, too. The purpose of the HOV lane is to take vehicles off the road.
Last time I got pulled over, Ponch & John told my passenger to put some clothes on.
definitely
"For HOV purposes, a person is someone who occupies a separate and distinct space in a vehicle"
The real problem is that there are such things as HOV lanes.
Just another social-engineering tool.
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