"Bottone, who was 34 weeks pregnant at the time, pointed to her stomach. Even though she said her 'baby girl is right here,' Bottone said one of the deputies she encountered on June 29 told her it had to be 'two bodies outside of the body.' While the state’s penal code recognizes a fetus as a person, the Texas Transportation Code does not."<p>I would be extremely surprised if the state's transportation code specifically called out "outside the body". Also I don't think it would make sense if it did. What's the functional difference between an en-wombed child and a recently released one in this situation?<p>I say they should let her go in the HOV lane.<p>The Texas Department of Transportation says the HOV lane can be used by "a vehicle occupied by two or more people" and nothing in their list of exclusions precludes pregnant women.<p><a href="https://www.txdot.gov/driver/managed-lanes/high-occupancy-vehicle-lanes.html" rel="nofollow">https://www.txdot.gov/driver/managed-lanes/high-occupancy-ve...</a>
I have always felt it should be 'Two or more LICENSED persons per vehicle". The idea is to remove cars from the road for the HOV lanes. Kiddie poolers are not removing cars, they are just giving them VIP access. Remove extra drivers by sharing is the intent. Make it so!
Suppose she got slammed on the road by a malicious driver intentionally and died along with the baby. If the malicious driver could be charged with two homicides under TX law (I don't know) then it seems reasonable to conclude two people occupied the vehicle through the lens of Texas law.
Unable to read article. What does HOV stand for?<p>Managed to deduce from comments that it’s some kind of commuting lane but can’t figure out the acronym.