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It’s both, unlike say a private driveway, which isn’t generally open to the public. Think of it this way, would you want for it to be legal to drive through a fast food parking lot or drive-thru drunk just because a company owns that parking lot, or should that be just as illegal as driving on a traditional road because both are dangerous to the general public?
Neither? I don’t want the rules of the road to be enforced where they don’t apply or are inappropriate. The slippery slope you present is not a valid argument: if someone’s driving drunk in a drivethrough there isn’t a reason the cop couldn’t wait until they pull onto a public road to immediately pull them over.
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That’s a valid POV, but not how DWI law is enforced in a lot of states. For instance if a drunk driver is passed out at the wheel at a drive thru, they can be convicted of DWI. Same if they’re drunk driving in the grocery store parking lot and putting others at risk. That said, it used to be a more common argument that the drunk person wasn’t on an actual road, so not so much anymore since legislatures removed that loophole in defining “public vehicular area.”
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“Sorry, sir, this is a topic about phone use in a drivethrough.”
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To be fair, the cop said he saw him using the phone on the road before pulling him over while in the drive-thru. My point bringing up DWI law wasn’t that it’s a slippery slope, it was that in either case (texting while driving or DWI), you can be charged and convicted of it if you’re doing it in a drive-thru, just like if you’re doing it on a road.
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You trust a traffic cop’s word?
Seriously, I hate when people use their phone while driving with a deep and abiding passion, but beyond even the usual skepticism of traffic cops’ veracity, this response smells of bullshit. If the cop did observe cell phone use on the public road, why didn’t he pull over the driver there? How did the driver not notice lights and sirens while slowly and deliberately pulling into a McDonald’s? If the driver did pull into the McD’s to evade the ticket, why wasn’t he also charged with evasion?
Nope. I don’t buy it.
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The catch for the drive-thru is that so many of them now pretty much require use of your cell to place to order. Now, this does not excuse getting the phone out on the road, and that I will applaud.
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I didn’t mean to suggest the cop’s side is accurate. Or that it makes any sense to charge someone using their phone at a drive-thru. My point was that you can be found guilty of these violations while driving in a privately owned parking lot if it’s generally open to the public.
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Now, to be fair, I don’t use the drive thru much these days, but… since when?
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I don’t eat in them, but my wife used to have to pull her phone out to get the reward points, to read the menu, to use her gift cards, it seemed like everything except the eating.
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Damn… super-weird.
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Technically, all of that would be ok as long as the car wasn’t moving while doing so. Same argument would apply at traffic lights, since in both cases the car would be 'lawfully stopped."
See here:
"https://www.ncleg.net/enactedlegislation/statutes/html/bysection/chapter_20/gs_20-137.4a.html
(b) Exceptions. – The provisions of this section shall not apply to:
(1) The operator of a vehicle that is lawfully parked or stopped.
ETA: Actually it looks like you’d have to be reading or entering a text or email specifically, so maybe reward points and such would be ok.
Both? I’ve heard that parking lots/drive-throughs are public roads as opposed to your driveway. That’s why you aren’t supposed to blast through the solid yellow lines to get a front-facing spot…
Except Costco parking lots- that’s international waters.
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so I can keep playing Candy Crush on the freeway?
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How it it they give us a tickets for looking at our phones or just about anything now days…
But how is it its okay for them to look at there phones or thete computers that are inbthe car and thats okay.it seems to me that there computers that are in there cop car that they look at while stopped atca red lights or driving is a distraction…but its okay for them to get by with breaking the law but if we do it its a ticket…or they flip on there serine or lights just to get threw a red light they don’t want to wait for it to change…they break more laws then us every day folks do…but thats okay well i think not…
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What is the lie, exactly?
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Im a deputy an im trying to figure how he got pulled over and ticketed in a drive thru. That’s considered private property.
Was the deputy following him on the highway prior to him pulling into the drive thru? If not I dont see how this would really stand.
Now granted every state has its own rules and I’m in florida this isnt a thing… I would like to see the actual ticket. Most Law Enforcement write small notes on the back of the ticket. I would request the original and see what he wrote or pull him to the side in court and ask him is it worth ruining some kids driving history over a cheese burger?
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Welcome to BB.
Police corruption and abuse of power is very likely the answer to your question.
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You’ve never busted someone for a minor infraction just because you could?
That happens a LOT.
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