Eating while driving ...

Hi,

I just read this on the Morsels e-mail newsletter:

A Reuters story this week reported that police in Tyneside, England, called in a spotter plane, a helicopter, and a video-equipped patrol car to gather evidence to convict a woman who ate an apple while driving to work. After nine court hearings, nursery nurse Sarah McCaffery, 23, was fined 60 pounds for driving recklessly. Said the guilty party: "You would think they had better things to do."

I will sometimes eat while driving. I have been stopped for eating while driving, but it was in Moscow, USSR during a period when I was stopped daily by the police. It was "VIP" treatment all foreigners driving about had to endure. We were easy to pick off: where the locals had white licenses with black lettering, we had safety yellow with black lettering.

Has anyone here been stopped or ticketed for eating while driving?

Not personally, but a friend of my husband's was in an accident -- a woman trying to eat a bucket of chicken blew the stoplight and hit his car. His driver's side window was open and he felt something hit him in the head at the time of impact. It turned out to be a fried chicken thigh. The driver of the other car was coated with mashed potatoes and gravy, which she was trying to balance on her lap and eat while driving. Her husband, who was also covered in food, just kept screaming at her, "I told you not to do that. Why can't you ever wait until you get home???"

sdritz wrote:Not personally, but a friend of my husband's was in an accident -- a woman trying to eat a bucket of chicken blew the stoplight and hit his car. His driver's side window was open and he felt something hit him in the head at the time of impact. It turned out to be a fried chicken thigh. The driver of the other car was coated with mashed potatoes and gravy, which she was trying to balance on her lap and eat while driving. Her husband, who was also covered in food, just kept screaming at her, "I told you not to do that. Why can't you ever wait until you get home???"

Great story.

More fun than if she was eating a Big Mac. You could always embellish a little. How about a chicken bone stuck in your friend's neck and pierced his jugular. And while he was laying on a gurney in the ER for four hours, he was glad he saved the flying thigh .

Similar thing happened to me. I stopped for a stop sign near Clark & Lunt when some clown rearended me HARD. Luckily, I was driving a pickup truck w/ a tube steel rear bumper, which pretty much totaled his car (destroyed the front end, tented up the hood a couple of feet, and pushed both front quarter panels back over the doors). As he struggled to get out, ruining the driver's side door in the process, I noticed that he was literally covered in the burrito that he had been eating.

If I wasn't so p*ssed off I would have laughed out loud.

When I had a regular office job, our summer hours would give us Friday afternoons off, and I'd head to Zion for the beach. To get on the road as fast as possible, I'd often grab fast food -- I'll do penance for that later.

Taco Hell is a bad choice: every one of their options likes to dribble bits: trying to drive and recover that stray tomato or bit of chicken is a scary prospect.

Arby's is only slightlly better: the sandwiches hold together, but the sauces which make it an interesting fast food choice also make it hazardous.

Hot dogs are no better: relish, onions and pickles will attempt to escape, regardless of how well you manage the waxed paper.

There pretty much isn't a sandwich without danger, although sliced deli meats are 'safer' than, say, chopped liver (but watch the mustard!)

I've mostly given up on that practice (partly because I'm working out of my house where lunch food is available), and at worst will eat the sandwich stationary and save the drink and/or fried things (frites, onion rings, etc.) for the drive.

eat the sandwich stationary and save the drink and/or fried things (frites, onion rings, etc.) for the drive

That's pretty much what I do. I will sometimes do the sandwich at traffic lights.

Cathy2 wrote:

eat the sandwich stationary and save the drink and/or fried things (frites, onion rings, etc.) for the drive

That's pretty much what I do. I will sometimes do the sandwich at traffic lights.

C2 et al.,

Infrequently, I find myself so pressed for time I have to eat and drive, which I'm willing to do, but I find it so unsatisfying that I try to avoid it all costs. It's so damned inconvenient and messy...and unsatisfying. Now, when driving and eating, the food that is eaten is usually something that doesn't require much focus (basically fastfood fuel), but still, I'd rather do my best to enjoy my Whopper than to just slam it down while careening through traffic (which, as I say, is sometimes necessary, and unavoidable, but still loathesome).

Hammond

I don't eat while driving all that often, but I DO eat while driving 100% of the time when returning from Old Fashioned Donuts with apple fritters in tow. I have found it to be beyond reason for any human to resist eating a freshly bought apple fritter until arriving home...especially if you live on the north side (it's a very long drive).