Should you be able to drive with Fido on your lap? These NC lawmakers don’t think so
Driving with a dog or other animal on your lap would be illegal in North Carolina under a bill that passed its first hurdle in the House on Wednesday.
House Bill 394 would also make it illegal to interact with a child or an animal while driving “in a manner that impairs or restricts the proper operation of the motor vehicle and results in operation that is careless, reckless, or heedless.” Violators would face a $100 fine plus court costs, which this year are $176 in most District Court cases.
The House Transportation Committee approved the bill without dissent. The bill makes exceptions for fully autonomous vehicles, which are not available in the state.
Rep. Frank Iler, a Republican from Brunswick County, said he introduced the measure because he sees many people driving with dogs on their laps and thinks it distracts drivers from the road. Iler likened his bill to the state law that makes it illegal to send or receive a text message while driving.
As with the texting law, Iler acknowledged that enforcement would be “somewhat subjective.”
“But it would be pretty obvious if somebody’s holding an animal with their head sticking out the door,” he said. “And if they start licking their face, are they going to be distracted? That’s the question.”
Two of Iler’s colleagues on the transportation committee praised the bill with stories of their own encounters with people driving with loose pets.
Rep. Stephen Ross, a Republican from Alamance County, said he watched a car weaving from lane to lane on Interstate 40 and assumed the driver was fiddling with a cellphone, only to discover a dog the size of a German shepherd in the front seat.
“I couldn’t tell if the dog was driving the car or the driver was driving the car,” Ross said. “That’s how bad this stuff has gotten in some areas. Big dogs in people’s laps, hanging out the window.”
Setting a benchmark
For Rep. Jay Adams of Catawba County, it was a poodle in the lap of a woman who drifted off the side of I-40 near Hickory last week. Adams was among those who stopped to help after the driver over-corrected, hit an embankment and flipped over.
Adams said the point of the law would not be for police or state troopers to issue lots of fines.
“What we do when we pass legislation like this is we set a benchmark for people to observe,” he said. “So yeah, it’s not going to cure everything. ... But it sends a message to the public that we want you to stop doing this.”
Rep. Harry Warren, a Republican from Rowan County, first wondered if driving with a pet in your lap wasn’t already illegal under the state’s distracted driving law. When he learned there isn’t such a law, Warren suggested perhaps there should be, rather than addressing every potential distraction with separate bills.
Warren said he would speak with Iler about broadening the scope of the pet bill before it goes to the House Judiciary Committee.
North Carolina lawmakers have not been eager to address distracted driving in recent years. Since 2011, several bills that would ban the use of hand-held phones while driving have failed to become law.
The latest version of The Hands Free NC Act, Senate Bill 526, was introduced this week. It would make it illegal to drive with “a wireless communication device” in your hand or while “watching a video or movie or communicating by video on a wireless communication device.”
Distracted driving was a factor in nearly 48,000 crashes in North Carolina, resulting in 19,000 injuries and 132 deaths, in 2023, the most recent year for which complete data is available, according to the N.C. Division of Motor Vehicles. But because law enforcement officers rely on drivers to admit to being distracted, the DMV says the actual number of distracted driving crashes is likely higher.
