Statutory Interpretation

Don't be too intimidated by the title of this post. I have a very simple task for all of you.

I'm sitting here in my little conference room that I use as an office in the law firm I work for, and the senior partner (who must be nearly 80) comes in and hands me a piece of paper. "This is going to be debated in the General Assembly next week. Tell me what it means." I proceeded to read it, then he very loudly said "Now what in the FUCK does that mean?" After the moment of surprise for his choice of words, I read it again and realized it doesn't really make sense. But since we legally minded folk sometimes fail to see the forest in all the trees, I thought I'd elicit some ideas from the rest of you (Todd- you can participate despite your legal mind in training). Many of you did Youth in Government, so maybe you understand.

"If a motor vehicle is involved in an accident and there is more than (1) driver of such motor vehicle, only a driver found at fault shall be charged with a violation of the rules of the road complied in title 55, chapter 8."

Read it again carefully and tell me what it means. If it is written correctly, I can think of only two situations where this makes sense. 1) Fire trucks with a "back driver" or 2) Drivers education cars with two "drivers."

My other idea (the more likely one) is that it is a terribly written attempt to keep non-at-fault drivers from being cited when they get in an accident with another driver (in another car). Based on the apparent average IQ of a Tennessee lawmaker, this seems to be just a horribly written attempt at that.

Last thing- I realize this isn't TERRIBLY interesting, but nobody is talking about anything else... so this is what you get.