# That suckles! errr not on the turnpike. **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 19, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-suckles-errr-not-on-the-turnpike/182966 "2003-06-19T17:50:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![byter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e480ec/32.png) [@byter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/byter)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-suckles-errr-not-on-the-turnpike/182966/1 "2003-06-19T17:50:44Z")
A whole new meaning to drinking and driving. > [@](#): > > A mother who was driving from Detroit to Pittsburgh is facing charges for breastfeeding her child while driving. Highway patrol officers pulled over Catherine Donkers on the Ohio turnpike in Portage County. > > Police say a truck driver spotted her breastfeeding and trying to drive at the same time. > Donkers, 29, doesn’t think her actions were especially dangerous. > “I think there are lots of things that we do where we put ourselves at risk, just by the very fact that I am in a car and there’s lots of car accidents every single day. And I think it would be reasonable to say that even that’s a danger,” Donkers said, according to NBC affiliate WKYC in Cleveland. [a little more here](http://www.clickondetroit.com/news/2277915/detail.html) Believe it or not, there may be a precedent > [@](#): > > Lucrecia Ortuno, 30, was charged in August with injuring her 8- month-old son in a car crash in Houston, Tex.; according to police reports, she was driving while breastfeeding him. ---
**Author:** ![Mayfield\_St.Cloud](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/67e7ee/32.png) [@Mayfield\_St.Cloud](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mayfield_St.Cloud)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-suckles-errr-not-on-the-turnpike/182966/2 "2003-06-19T17:57:15Z")
> [@](#): > > A whole new meaning to drinking and driving. Just don’t try and throw the empties out the window! ---
**Author:** ![lauramarlane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/a5b964/32.png) [@lauramarlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lauramarlane)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-suckles-errr-not-on-the-turnpike/182966/3 "2003-06-19T17:58:16Z")
Michigan actually has a law that exempts breastfeeding moms from using the child restraints?! Given the obvious danger, I can’t understand this. I’ve been the nursing mom–in the passenger seat, mind you–who would have liked to nurse while we drove, but it just seemed like such a danger if we got into an accident. Much easier to pull over at a rest stop and take care of the feeding safely. ---
**Author:** ![Fin\_man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/51bf81/32.png) [@Fin\_man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fin_man)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-suckles-errr-not-on-the-turnpike/182966/4 "2003-06-19T18:27:15Z")
The woman is fucking stupid. I’m sorry, child safety seat laws are there for a reason. Breastfeeding while driving is worse. If she gets in an accident, chances are that she would crush her baby between her and the stearing wheel. Fin\_woman and I have been discussing this since we will soon be taking a 9-hour car ride with Fin\_baby. We will stop for the feedings but if need be, Fin\_woman will pump into a bottle and then feed Fin\_baby with the bottle. However, Fin\_baby will never leave the seat while the car is in motion and Fin\_women will remain in a seatbelt. ---
**Author:** ![Elemenopy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b5e925/32.png) [@Elemenopy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elemenopy)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-suckles-errr-not-on-the-turnpike/182966/5 "2003-06-19T18:58:32Z")
Idiocy. How hard is it to pull over and feed your baby? I admit, as a passenger with a ravenous little one, I learned new levels of contortion to be able to nurse baby in carseat while still buckled in myself. She’d be more likely to get into an accident in the first place–I can hardly type while breastfeeding, let alone drive. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Rick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9f8e36/32.png) [@Rick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-suckles-errr-not-on-the-turnpike/182966/6 "2003-06-19T19:29:19Z")
I saw this on the TV news this AM and was unable to find a link so I could start a thread, thanks **byter.** I can kinda understand the Michigan law, having traveled long distances with infants. However I would bet any amount that the lawmakers did not have a driver in mind when they put that provision in. Last time I checked it took two hands to remove the baby from the child seat. Let’s see now that would leave exactly how many hands for the steering wheel? Oh yeah the number I am looking for is zero. Now in the event of an accident one of three things would happen. In an airbag equiped car the child would be trapped between the inflating airbag and and mother being thrown forward. Result dead child. In a non airbag equiped car the child would either be trapped between the mother and the airbag (giving the same result as above) or thrown out of the mother grasp and through a window or windshield. And she sees this as being no more dangerous than having the kid properly strapped into a safety seat. :wally :eek: :wally The arguement about the laws of her home state applying doesn’t seem to make any sense to me. I mean if I lived in Montana could I then drive 85 on an interstate, in another state, where the posted limit is 55, and use my Montana residency as a get out of jail free card? If this is so, then I am going to move. 😃 (Yes I am the king of strange sentence construction) Don’t get me wrong I have nothing against breastfeeding in public or private, just there are certain places where I don’t think it is safe. Driving a car is one, riding a rollercoaster would be another. ---
**Author:** ![Siege](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/dbc845/32.png) [@Siege](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siege)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 10:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-suckles-errr-not-on-the-turnpike/182966/7 "2003-06-19T22:22:37Z")
I saw this story on the morning news, too, and didn’t post it for the same reason. She says the baby isn’t out of the car seat that long and he (she?) isn’t in that much danger. What struck me about that excuse is that’s the same excuse I’ve read used by people who leave their children unbuckled while they’re running a few errands. I don’t have kids, and I’m pretty clueless about them, but it seems to me that nursing a child would be a distraction while you’re driving, more so than, say, listening to the radio. I am very much in favor of breastfeeding as a whole, but, like **Rick** said, there are some situations in which I can’t consider it appropriate. If she were a passenger, I wouldn’t consider it unreasonable to breastfeed, but I’m not thrilled about the prospect of her doing it while driving. CJ Who came of age long before car seats ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2003, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/that-suckles-errr-not-on-the-turnpike/182966/8 "2003-06-19T22:42:18Z")
A typical alert trucker. 😃 And another aptly named driver makes an idiot of herself.