Man Gets Ticket While Wife is in Labor!
From the Associated Press:
Mass. man ticketed on a gridlocked highway while wife in labor on way to hospital
Dec 5, 2008(BOSTON) A man in Massachusetts is appealing a $100 ticket he got for driving to a hospital in the breakdown lane of a gridlocked Boston highway while his wife was in labor. John Davis of Dracut says his wife Jennifer’s contractions were three minutes apart on Nov. 18 when a state trooper pulled them over for using the breakdown lane.
The couple says the trooper made them wait five to 10 minutes while he wrote a ticket for another car on Route 2, asked to see Jennifer’s belly to prove her pregnancy, then issued them a ticket.
The couple made it to Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge. Their daughter was born five hours later.
State police say no discipline is likely for the trooper.
I sure would love to see one of Colby Jones’ cartoons about this one!
One email per post. Twenty years of this, still going. Unsubscribe whenever.
Thank you for sharing information on “Man Gets Ticket While Wife is in Labor!”
This seriously sucks, may be the officer is not married and does not have any idea about serious is the case!
People may wonder whether the couple has any recourse in a situation like this. In general, the answer is “no” for something of this degree. If an officer’s actions are outrageous, a person may seek recourse with a 1983 action (42 U.S.C. 1983). This law states that
It is very difficult to win a 1983 action. The person must show that a Constitutional right was violated and no reasonable officer would have acted as the officer did.
You’d be amazed at some of the things I hear in traffic court. Some police officers think they’re God’s gift to the world, and they hold all the power in the legal system. This guy sounds nuts!