Cobb County Solicitor General Talks "Driving While Eating" Case

The solicitor general of Cobb County is considering prosecuting a man who was pulled over and cited for eating a cheeseburger while driving last week.

According to WSB-TV, Madison Turner, an Alabama man was pulled over in Cobb County and given a ticket for “eating while driving.” Turner had bought a burger from McDonalds and had been eating it while behind the wheel for a few miles before the officer pulled him over, WSB-TV says.

Turner was cited for failing to abide by the state’s distracted driving law, but an unaffiliated DUI attorney told WSB-TV that he never sees citations for eating while driving unless that driver caused an accident.

Cobb County Solicitor General Barry Morgan told The Fulton County Daily report that the source of the distraction is irrelevant; his office must decide whether or not the distraction was serious enough to cause the driver to operate his vehicle in an unsafe manner.

Morgan said Tuesday that to successfully prosecute a distracted driving case, he must prove that the driver was performing an action that was so distracting that he or she was not able to safely drive.

Turner’s next court date is Feb. 3, according to WSB-TV.