By: Ryan Guo

32-year-old pregnant woman Brandy Bottone, of Plano, Texas was pulled over by Police after driving on a HOV lane (high occupancy vehicle lane). Police claim that there were no other passengers in the car, but Bottone argues that her unborn baby counts as a passenger.

Bottone was stopped by the Dallas Sheriff Department, who at the time were looking for people who were breaking HOV lane rules.

In order to use the HOV lane, there must be at least one other passenger in the car. When the sheriff’s deputy told Bottone about the rule, she replied that she did have another passenger, her unborn baby.

“I pointed to my stomach and said, ‘My baby girl is right here. She is a person,’” Bottone said to the Dallas-Morning-News, who were the first people to report this incident. However, the officer responded that the rule applied to people outside of the body, not unborn babies.

“And then I said, ‘Well I’m not trying to throw a political mix here, but with everything going on, this counts as a baby,'” Bottone told NBC. Bottone told The Morning News that the officer said that he didn’t “want to deal with this” and continued to say that HOV lanes rules required that there must be “two persons outside the body”.

Many Deputies told Bottone that if she fought the $215 ticket, she would likely win. She plans on fighting the ticket by saying that her baby counts as a passenger of a vehicle.

“This has my blood boiling. How could this be fair? According to the new law, this is a life,” Bottone told The Morning News. “I know this may fall on deaf ears, but as a woman, this was shocking.”

Sources: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/pregnant-texas-woman-says-unborn-baby-count-car-passenger-receiving-ho-rcna37531