Mom-to-be calls unborn a passenger

A pregnant woman ticketed for driving in the carpool lane will have her day in court next month to argue that her unborn child counts as a second person in the car.

"I understand the reasoning for the HOV lane," said Candace Dickinson, 23. "But whether my son is in a car seat versus in my stomach, I don’t get it. It’s the same thing."

The near-full-term Ahwatukee Foothills woman was driving to work on Interstate 10 near Interstate 17 at 6 a.m. last week when a Phoenix police officer pulled her over.

"He asked how many people were in the car with me, and I said, ‘Two’ and he said ‘No, one.’ I said I was nine months pregnant and had my son in the car with me," she said. "The way the law is written, he can occupy the vehicle without occupying a seat."

http://www.eastvalleytribune.com/index.php?sty=53255

I dunno - should kids count at all in carpool lanes? It's a nice thing to have, but the idea of the carpool lane is to reward people who are sharing a car, and thus keeping one more car off the roadway. Since a little kid is never driving themselves anywhere, there's really no true carpool going on there.

But if you do take the current definition, where it's just a question if there is one or two people in the car - the lady might be right, the difference between now and 1 month from now - what is it exactly?

Details said:

I dunno - should kids count at all in carpool lanes? It's a nice thing to have, but the idea of the carpool lane is to reward people who are sharing a car, and thus keeping one more car off the roadway. Since a little kid is never driving themselves anywhere, there's really no true carpool going on there.

But if you do take the current definition, where it's just a question if there is one or two people in the car - the lady might be right, the difference between now and 1 month from now - what is it exactly?

Click to expand...

I carpool with a "mommy" group and we do take a car off the road when we take children that are not ours. I often drive two or three children other than my own to and from school, dance class, library, etc.

Sure, but one kid is never going to take a car off the road, and that's what she had... Two kids - sure, especially if one is not your own.

I think she was being a smarta$$ to the cop. I hope she gets the fine.