A pregnant woman from Texas was slapped with a traffic ticket for driving her car in a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane after officers dismissed her argument that her unborn child be counted as a second person.
Brandy Bottone of Plano was 34 weeks into pregnancy on June 29 when she was driving her car to pick up her son. As she couldn’t be a “minute late,” Brandy took the HOV lane, she told The Dallas Morning News. When she exited the lane, Brandy stopped at a checkpoint and was pulled over by the police. An officer peeked into the vehicle, questioning whether there was any other person in the car. Brandy pointed to her stomach, stating that her baby girl was right there. “She is a person,” Brandy said.