Pregnant Texas Woman Argues She Can Drive in the HOV Lane

Things are about to get very interesting if this goes anywhere and I think she has a valid argument.

If you're pregnant, you have certain things you can take advantage of. The one we see most often is the closer parking in parking lots. Typically near the handicapped spaces, they have an expectant mother space usually with a picture of a stork on it. This way someone who is pregnant does not have to walk further to get into a building, but what about special lanes for you to drive in?

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Here in Wichita Falls we don't have HOV lanes, I am sure some of you have know idea what this is. It stands for High Occupancy Vehicle, which means if you have two or more people in your vehicle you can use this lane. It is meant to encourage carpooling to work that way we have less vehicles on the road who may be going to same destination.

A woman in Plano was recently pulled over for driving in the HOV lane "by herself". The officer clearly saw no one else in the vehicle, Brandy Bottone said someone else was in the vehicle and pointed at her belly. According to the officer, the law is for two people outside the body. Here is the official law according to the Texas Department of Transportation.

A vehicle occupied by two or more people or a motorcyclist may use HOV lanes. Vehicles eligible to use HOV lanes include, but are not limited to:

• passenger cars
• pickup trucks
• vans
• buses
• motorcycles
• emergency vehicles responding to a call

Note: Hybrid vehicles with single occupants are not allowed in HOV lanes.

Brandy was handed a ticket for $275 for illegally driving in the HOV lane. Brandy says she plans to fight the ticket later this month. The state of Texas has made it clear in their policies that a woman who is six weeks along is carrying a person. Brandy was around 34 weeks pregnant at the time of getting pulled over.

She could actually give birth before her court date, so she was pretty well along at the time of getting pulled over at the end of June. I really hope she fights this because if the baby is considered a person then pregnant ladies, enjoy that HOV lane. You deserve it.