Did you know that in Russia it’s illegal to have a dirty car? Or that in France, every driver must legally carry a personal breathalyzer in their vehicle? Or how about the fact that in Japan, you can get fined $65 if you accidentally splash a pedestrian as you drive through a puddle?
Don’t laugh too hard, though. The United States isn’t entirely innocent of having weird driving laws. Here are just a few such odd legal statutes from across the nation.
California
The sunshine state’s books are full of weird legal statutes. In Glendale, action heroes could face a fine for jumping out of cars speeding in excess of 65 miles per hour. In Eureka, it’s illegal to use the road as a bed — no matter how luxurious that pavement looks. And don’t make any party fouls in Hermosa Beach, because legislators have made it illegal to spill your margarita on any street or road.
North Carolina
As much of a hurry as you may be in North Carolina, you can’t drive on the sidewalks there, officially. This doesn’t mean pedestrians have free range though, since it’s also officially illegal for anyone to play in traffic. Let’s also not forget about the fact that it’s illegal to drive through a cemetery, too. Based on these laws, it seems that North Carolina doesn’t have too much faith in its citizens’ common sense.
Kansas
As hard as it might be to believe, Derby, Kansas has a legal statute that considers the act of screeching one’s tires while driving as a misdemeanor, which can send a perpetrator to jail for 30 days. Meanwhile, in Topeka, motorists can’t drive their dead poultry on Kansas Avenue, so it’s best to find an alternative route if you have to bring a dozen dead chickens somewhere.
It’s not uncommon for law students to uncover some rather perplexing legal statutes when doing legislative history research. Though they made sense at the time of their ratification, it’d probably take a professional legislative intent service to really figure out what’s going on with these strange legal statutes. Instead of trying to wrap your head around these bizarro legal statutes, it’s probably best to just shake your head and grin in amusement.
If you’ve ever heard of some strange legal statutes regarding the road that went unmentioned on this list, please feel free to share in the comments.