Even though eating in your car is a time-honored tradition for many drivers, at least one police officer in Georgia believes that gulping down your McDonald’s double quarter-pounder with cheese while behind the wheel is enough of a safety risk to merit a ticket.

This is according to WSBTV in Atlanta, which as the story of an Alabama man who recently received a ticket for being caught “Eating While Driving.”

“The officer explained to me that he observed me eating a burger for 2 miles,” recalls the driver. “He said specifically three times, you can’t just go down the road eating a hamburger.”

The driver’s in-car dinner allegedly violated a state law requiring that drivers must “exercise due care in operating a motor vehicle… and shall not engage in any actions which shall distract such driver from the safe operation of such vehicle.”

“Maybe I was enjoying the burger too much I needed to tone it down,” says the driver, who has a court date of Feb. 3. “I was certainly willing to do so but I didn’t expect to be fined or punished.”

An attorney specializing in traffic and DUI cases — who isn’t involved in this instance — tells WSBTV that the only time he’s seen people flagged for eating and driving is when there is an accident. And if police are going to start pulling over everyone on the road who’s eating behind the wheel, “I’d have to hire more attorneys because everybody does it including me.”

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