On the Road

Recently, California Governor (aka the Governator) Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed a law which disallows drivers from holding their pets in their laps while driving. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, why don’t they just put them in the boot instead?

Jokes aside, according to a story reported by the Associated Press, California Assemblyman Bill Maze suggested the ban after seeing a woman drive around with three dogs in her car, although it’s not clear what combination of dogs were actually on her lap at the time.

I wondered why Ah-nuld vetoed the law, given the states of North America often enact strange laws as a statement of their independence. For example, in Indiana it is illegal to make a monkey smoke.

If you’re going to play with your dog/cat/monkey/rooster/horse etcetera, a car is not the place to do it and for the same reason driving while operating a cellular phone is illegal.

We all know ‘handphone driving’ (as it is known here, quoting official sources I might add) is dangerous. It doesn’t take a big leap to wonder how much Fifi jumping up and down in your lap or deciding the walnut wood interior trim really does remind him of a tree would distract you while hurtle down the PIE at 100km/h in the rain, for instance.

My thinking is, if it can save lives and avoid injury, why not? California already has the strictest emission laws in America, so upholding the ‘lap-pet driving’ law shouldn’t be too hard, unless the person owns a mouse or an ant. In which case he/she should only be driving straight to an asylum.

But this is America we’re talking about, the land where fourteen-year-olds can have a learner’s permit, surely things like that can’t happen in Singapore?

I’ve had the misfortune of witnessing ‘lapdog driving’ first hand in Singapore. I’m usually quite an unflappable person but it gave me two scares for the price of one. At first I thought it was an ugly baby with dyed hair but then realized it was an ugly small dog instead. The worst bit was when I realised it wasn’t a rich housewife but a middle-aged businessman driving a BMW 5 Series no less.

Needless to say I was perplexed. Maybe his heart breaks at the sound of Fifi’s whining, I don’t know. In any case he should know the 5 Series has a pretty big glove compartment and that the safest place for small noisy things is either a dog carrier or a child seat and not the lap.

In California maybe a certain Mercedes SLR-driving, Chihuahua-loving hotel heiress influenced Arnie to stop the lapdog law. In Singapore though I hope we won’t even have to consider legislation like that.