Chateau de la Tobler

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Carpool lane

So tell me if anyone else heard about this one.
Here in Phoenix, about 4 months ago a woman was pulled over for driving in the carpool lane without anyone else in the car with her. Now, for those of you who don't know, the ticket for this offense is quite high, $375. (no, we have never been given this ticket!) Jeff had to go to drivers school for another offense and most of the people there were driving in the lane. Anyway, the woman argued, aparently for quite a while, that she qualified to drive in the car pool lane because she was pregnate!
The reason this has come back to mind is because this woman just went to court to fight out her ticket there. Now, she has given birth since this experiance, so she is no longer driving for two, but still, she went before the Judge to argue that the ticket was given falsely. Needless to say, the Judge didn't buy it. He said that no matter what your stand is on what constitutes a person, in order to drive in the carpool lane, that person has to occupy a seperate seat!
Jeff and I are very grateful for this ruling. Without it, any woman could drive in that lane and just claim to be with child. The cops can hardly carry around home pregancy kits and demand they pee on the stick next to the freeway. That would probably cause a lot of accidents!