Dogs are great — but not in your lap while driving
Q
Good morning Honk: Is it legal to drive with your dog in your lap and hanging out of the driver's window? I see this regularly. They are usually small dogs, but it still seems dangerous for both the dog and the driver. Could be dangerous for other drivers, too!
A
Lot of that going around, Joe, and the driver can get cited.
“It is not legal to do that,” said Brian Kinsey, an officer and spokesperson for the California Highway Patrol out of the San Juan Capistrano station house. “They could be cited for it.”
A decision on whether to cite, of course, is up to the individual officer who sees the pair in the driver's seat.
Officers can use what they call the “unsafe speed law,” a catch-all in the Vehicle Code that can be deployed to cite for various offenses.
Literally, the law says: “No person shall drive a vehicle upon a highway at a speed greater than is reasonable or prudent having due regard for weather, visibility, the traffic on, and the surface and width of, the highway, and in no event at a speed which endangers the safety of persons or property.”
As Officer Kinsey puts it: “The safe speed to drive with a dog in your lap is zero.”
An officer would write on the citation, so it is clear why the driver was cited, something such as: “Dog in lap.”
He recommends putting the dog in proper restraints elsewhere in the vehicle
— to keep every mammal aboard safe.
Kinsey remembers a call, about seven years ago when he was stationed in Los Angeles County, when a dog — he thinks it was on a passenger's lap — jumped out a window on the 405 Freeway in the Long Beach area.
“It didn't end well for the dog,” he said.
Q
Dear Honk: If you forgot your driver's license, can an officer, based on your name, pull up your license information on the computer in the squad car and also see the photo?
A
Oftentimes, yes.
Officers have varying degrees of access on their computer systems, and some can certainly use a name or the driver's license number to pull up information, including, in Honk's case, his handsome mug.
But no one should forget their license — you certainly could be cited for driving without it.
There are 102 vehicles on the road with what are called “legislative license plates,” which current or former members of the state Legislature and U.S. Congress can get, said Ronald Ongtoaboc, a spokesman for the Department of Motor Vehicles. Last week, Honk explained such current and retired politicians can opt to pay more for the plates, which have special configurations.