Unborn Child May Be a Person, but Not a Passenger, Judge Rules

A pregnant Irvine woman, citing an earlier court ruling that an unborn child constitutes a passenger in a car-pool lane, lost her case Monday but escaped the usual $52 fine.

Diane Correll, 27, cited for driving alone in the car-pool lane of the Costa Mesa Freeway, contended that, based on an earlier ruling by Orange County Municipal Judge Randell L. Wilkinson, her unborn child was a passenger. Last January, Wilkinson found a pregnant Fullerton woman not guilty of violating the same law.

CHP officials said after the decision that they disagreed with the judge’s interpretation and planned to continue citing any driver without a passenger using the car-pool lane, pregnant or not. Correll was cited Feb. 17.

On Monday, Municipal Judge Pro Tem Robert Harris ruled that motor vehicle laws do not consider a pregnant woman to be two people. He said Correll had violated “the spirit of the law.”

Fine Suspended

But the judge suspended Correll’s $52 fine after she argued that publicity about the January ruling had led her to believe that she was in the right when she used the car-pool lane.

“It is now up to the Department of Transportation and the state Legislature to further clarify who is and who is not a viable passenger,” Harris said.

Correll said she had been contacted by several pregnant women and various anti-abortion advocates who offered their support for her case, which they viewed as a case defending the rights of unborn children.

“I feel what I have accomplished is to clarify for other pregnant women like myself whether or not the car-pool lane is available to them,” Correll told reporters outside the courtroom.

Correll, who is eight months pregnant, appeared without a lawyer and asked Harris rhetorically if she would have received a ticket if she had been carrying a carload of children.

Harris noted that there has been “endless litigation” on the subject of when a fetus becomes a person and on the rights of the unborn. But, he said, those arguments did not apply in this case. While criminal laws treat an unborn child as a person, it is up to the Legislature to decide if motor vehicle laws do, he said.

Correll had got a hint of what would be in store when she pleaded not guilty to the car-pool lane charge last month.

Commissioner Joan T. Reilly listened to Correll’s explanation that the unborn baby made two and then said, “If you use that (explanation at the trial), you will be shot down. . . . That is not an excuse that we accept in court.”