Can You Really Get a Ticket for Driving With Your Dog on Your Lap

Can You Really Get a Ticket for Driving With Your Dog on Your Lap –blog submitted by staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets.

Last Month was “Distracted Driver Awareness Month” and we saw many, many tickets that were issued to people for anything from talking on a phone, to texting, to driving with a dog on the lap!

Can you really be cited for driving with a dog on your lap? Well, according to one ticket we saw, an officer from the Irvine Police Department thought so. The driver was cited under “interference with driver’s control” (section 21701) and the officer wrote on the ticket “dog on lap”.

California Vehicle Code Section 21701 states: “No person shall willfully interfere with the driver of a vehicle or with the mechanism thereof in such manner as to affect the driver’s control of the vehicle. The provisions of this section shall not apply to a drivers’ license examiner or other employee of the Department of Motor Vehicles when conducting the road or driving test of an applicant for a driver’s license nor to a person giving instruction as a part of a course in driver training conducted by a public school, educational institution or a driver training school licensed by the Department of Motor Vehicles.”

Do you think it was proper for the officer to cite the driver under this statute for driving with a dog on his lap? We disagree. While driving with a safely tethered dog rather than a loose dog on the lap is certainly safer, we find the language of the statute really only applies to “a person” like a passenger that interferes with the driver. Not an animal. –  blog submitted by staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud, helping drivers contest and dismiss their traffic tickets.

If you get cited for a red light photo ticket, contact us at www.staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud or call us at (800) 850-8038.  For Spanish, please visit www.Combatesuticket.com or call (818) 584-3689.  For more information on how staging-vadusuxe.kinsta.cloud can help to beat your cell phone ticket, visit www.fightcellphonetickets.com or call (800) 850-8038.

This blog was written to provide information related to traffic tickets in California, is based on opinion only, is not legal advice, and is for informational purposes only.