Driven to distraction by the law

Motorist cries foul over‘flag’obstruction

Mathias Kwasi Yakah was driving south on Interstate 190, traveling from Leominster to Worcester, when he was pulled over by a state trooper.

He was puzzled by the stop. He had passed the cruiser, parked at the side of the freeway a few miles back.

He wasn’t speeding. He wasn’t weaving. He wasn’t doing anything to endanger himself or other motorists, he thought.

“He told me there were two reasons that he pulled me over,” said Mr. Yakah, a native of Ghana.

“He said I was in the fast lane for a long time, but that was OK because everybody does it. The second offense he said was because I had a small flag of my country hanging from my rearview mirror.

“He said it was impeding my vision as a driver and he wrote me a citation for $35. I couldn’t believe it.

“First of all, the flag is in no way an impediment. Secondly, I have seen so many cars with toys, flags, disabled and parking stickers hanging from their rearview mirrors. I just can’t understand how this is an offense.” He plans to contest the ticket.

It is true that many motorists drive around with air fresheners, parking passes, fuzzy dice, beads, rosaries and other items dangling from their rearview mirrors.

It also is true that in this state and others, hanging those items from your rearview mirror could be construed as a driving infraction.

In fact, there are cases of motorists being pulled over for having air fresheners and handicap stickers hanging from their rearview mirrors.

In this state, the applicable law is Massachusetts General Laws Chapter 70, section 13, that states in part that “no person, when operating a motor vehicle, shall permit to be on or in the vehicle or on or about his person anything which may interfere with or impede the proper operation of the vehicle …”

“It is a law that is open to interpretation,” acknowledged Sgt. Arthur Rose, night supervisor in the Worcester Police Traffic Division.

“The gist of it is whether the object is interfering with your sight line, but sometimes determining whether something is impeding or obstructing your view is like cutting a fine hair.”

The interpretative nature of the law was on display in a recent case that initially went against the defendant but was later reversed by the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court last year.

In that case, according to court records, a woman was driving about 8 p.m., down a dark, unlighted dirt road in North Brookfield, when she was pulled over by the police. The officer said he made the stop after his attention was drawn to “an item hanging or several items hanging from the defendant’s rearview mirror.”

The items were two small, wooden hearts, each about 1-1/2 inches wide and one inch tall, and a plastic diamond about three-quarters of an inch high and a half inch wide. The three objects were hanging from a piece of string.

“It was my determination that the items hanging were impeding the operation of the” vehicle, the officer said. Because of the hanging objects he concluded that the driver “could not see the road properly,” and this “might have affected her ability to drive safely.”

The defendant, after being stopped, was observed by the officer to have an odor of alcohol on her breath, glassy eyes and slurred speech. She was later convicted of driving under the influence. She appealed her case to the district court in a bid to suppress the evidence.

The district judge denied the motion to suppress the evidence, saying the officer had observed the objects because of the reflection of the prism and that it was reasonable for the officer to have inferred that the reflection from the prism could have interfered with safe operation of the vehicle.

The Supreme Judicial Court, however, said the evidence showed that the officer stopped the vehicle because he saw the three objects and not because he saw a reflection from the prism. The court further said the “mere existence of two or three objects hanging from a rearview mirror” does not suffice, in its mind, as a violation of state law.

“Although the Legislature could have chosen to do so, it has not specifically prohibited the hanging of objects from a vehicle’s rearview mirror,” the court said.

“Indeed we take judicial notice of the fact that objects such as air fresheners, graduation tassels, and religious medals commonly are hung from the rearview mirrors of motor vehicles driven in the commonwealth. We doubt the Legislature intended this ordinary practice to be grounds, without more, for issuing citations or for justifying a stop by the police.”

That is some “friend of the court brief” to have in your pocket if, as Mr. Yakah is doing, you are seeking legal redress for what you believe to be an unwarranted police stop and citation.

“I don’t think the law is applicable in my case,” Mr. Yakah said.

“There is no way my flag is an impediment. It was made to hang from the rearview mirror. Every Ghanaian shop I know sells them.”

Contact Clive McFarlane by e-mail at cmcfarlane@telegram.com.

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