Ottawa man plays literal game of chicken with law enforcement
Ottawa law enforcement officials recently cited a distracted driver for inattentive behavior that had nothing to do with any sort of electronic communications device. The man wasn’t texting or talking – he was eating a rotisserie chicken. An Ottawa law enforcement officer was passed recently by a car violating the posted speed limit and engaging in other high risk behaviors, such as swerving between lanes without signaling and tailgating the car ahead of him. Upon closer inspection, the officer realized the vehicle’s driver was eating rotisserie chicken from a bowl, and only sporadically putting either hand on the wheel to guide the vehicle. Though cellphone use, most commonly text based messaging, is explicitly banned by law in states and communities throughout the North American continent, the push to prohibit these dangerous behaviors has brought attention to less high tech forms of distraction, such as eating behind the wheel. In Ontario, where Ottawa is located, more than 130,000 citations were issued within a two year period ending February 29, 2012 for inattentive or careless driving, but some safety experts recommend drivers should put away more than their cellphones when operating a moving motor vehicle. A recent research study conducted in the United Kingdom shows that eating behind the wheel can also cause distractions and even put the driver in danger of causing or becoming involved with a serious collision. University of Leeds traffic safety researchers found that taking one hand off the wheel to eat reduced distraction time by 44 percent, as compared to the estimated 12.5 percent reduction experienced by a driver with a blood alcohol content of .08.
