Eating while driving: Man's burger gets him a traffic ticket

MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) - A man says enjoying a double quarter-pounder with cheese as he cruised down a highway outside Atlanta got him in trouble with the law - and a ticket for eating while driving.

Madison Turner of Alabama told WSB-TV that the officer told him three times: "You can't just go down the road eating a hamburger." He was ticketed for violating Georgia's distracted driving law; Turner said the officer told him he had been eating the McDonald's burger for about 2 miles.

"Maybe I was enjoying the burger too much; I needed to tone it down. I was certainly willing to do so, but I didn't expect to be fined or punished," Turner told the Atlanta station (http://bit.ly/1819eEp ).

In an email to The Associated Press early Tuesday, Cobb County police spokesman Mike Bowman said the department would not comment about the case.

William Head, a longtime traffic lawyer who is not representing Turner, said he doesn't recall seeing a case quite like this one.

Georgia's distracted driver law does not mention food. It says only that drivers can't engage in actions that distract them from operating a vehicle safely.

"Maybe if you had a giant pizza in both hands and you weren't holding the wheel, or maybe if you had a watermelon - half watermelon - and you were just diving into it holding it with both hands, maybe that would be something," Head said.