Athens woman charged with driving while eating

By Joe Johnson

Asia Shantera Smith, 31, of Old Hull Road, was arrested Wednesday night by a police officer who stopped her car after seeing it swerve into the bike lane on Barnett Shoals Road,

Officer Christopher Lukas said in his report that he determined that the woman had been distracted while driving because she was eating.

“I observed Ms. Smith to have sauce on her fingers along with the strong odor of food,” he stated.

The officer noted that when he asked Smith for her driver’s license she rolled up the window and positioned the sun visor so that it blocked his vision “while she was digging around inside her vehicle” and said that she ignored him when telling her to exit the car.

She got out when the officer warned that he’d charge her with obstruction, but was arrested on that charge anyway because she didn’t comply with Lukas when he told her to get out of the roadway and stand in front of his patrol car.

In addition to obstruction, Smith was arrested on charges of failure to maintain lane, distracted driving, and also for having an illegally dark tinted rear side window.