Is it against the law to eat while driving? Attorney Ben Schwartz answers this question for one of his YouTube viewers. She is concerned and wants her husband to eat while driving.

Hey folks I’m Attorney Ben Schwartz,

Today I am going to answer a viewer question. This is coming from Barbara in Wilmington, Delaware. Barbara wrote in and said, “my husband likes to get dinner at the drive-thru and he drives while eating his whopper with cheese. I told him it’s dangerous and illegal to eat and drive. Can you please tell him to stop!”

Well, Barbara, I have to tell you that you are writing me from Wilmington, Delaware. I am not aware of any law on the books in the state of Delaware that specifically says it’s illegal to eat and drive. However, what I can tell you is the law says that if you’re driving a motor vehicle, you have to pay full time and attention to what you’re doing, and you have to keep the vehicle under control.

If you are eating a whopper with cheese from the local drive-thru while you’re driving down the road you might not be paying full time and attention. So I can’t tell him to stop. I can’t tell you that I think it’s illegal. What I can tell you is I do think you should listen to your wife and wait till you get home to eat that whopper with cheese. Because God forbid you should get in a car accident and someone gets injured and it’s because you were distracted by your whopper with cheese. I think that would be a terrible thing to happen.

Now with that being said, I do wonder how many people out there are watching this video have been in accidents caused by a driver who instead of paying attention to the roadway was paying attention to eating something or chewing something or enjoying their lunch or enjoying their dinner.

I wonder if you have an opinion, do you think that people should be permitted or allowed to drive while eating? Or do you think it should be straight out prohibited by the law? I’m interested to know what you think. Leave us a comment on this video or send me an email.

Thanks, Barbara for sending us that good question. If you’re viewing the video and you have a question that you think would be a good topic for a conversation in one of these videos, send me an email.

Thanks for watching!