[UK] Drivers who smoke may face £60 fine

Drivers who smoke may face £60 fine
Mark Macaskill

MOTORISTS who light up behind the wheel face on-the-spot fines of up to £60 under plans to extend smoking restrictions to private cars It is proposed that Smoking should be listed alongside eating, drinking and reading maps as potentially lethal distractions in a new version of the Highway Code to be published next year.

Drivers who smoke would, for the first time, receive fines similar to those handed out for using a mobile phone.

The offence would fall within Department for Transport regulations requiring motorists to have “proper control” of their vehicle at all times.

Transport chiefs have been persuaded to class smoking as a dangerous activity following concerns that hundreds of people in Britain are killed or injured each year by motorists distracted after lighting up.

A study by Spanish researchers found that smokers were twice as likely to have a car accident as non-smokers. The higher incidence was blamed on motorists taking their eyes off the road while finding and lighting cigarettes.

Although the move has been welcomed by road safety campaigners and motoring organisations, pro-smoking groups have condemned it as a further attempt to victimise smokers, following the introduction of the ban on smoking in enclosed public space in Scotland.

The ban, introduced last March, extends to taxi drivers, lorry drivers and people who have company cars.

There are about 1.4m smokers in Scotland and ministers have set a target of reducing that by 186,000 by 2010. It is estimated that about 13,000 people die every year in Scotland from smoking-related illnesses.

“It seems the government is using every agency and bureaucracy available to it to ghetto-ise smokers and force them into quitting,” said Neil Rafferty, Scottish spokesman for Forest, the pro-smoking group.

“They’ve done it in pubs and restaurants, now they’re doing it in cars. This is an over- reaction and is very much a campaign against smokers.”

However, Maureen Moore, chief executive of Ash Scotland, the anti-smoking group, said: “This is a positive move to make the roads safer. Research suggests that drivers who smoke are more at risk of having an accident.

“Encouraging people not to smoke while driving will also have the benefits of reducing their passengers’ exposure to second-hand smoke.”

Andrew Howard, the head of road safety at the AA Motoring Trust, also welcomed the move.

“Smoking will now be included as a distraction and that means people could well face being fined for smoking at the wheel,” he said. “Some people will see it as an erosion of their freedoms but it is aimed at making the roads safer.”

Last March Donna Maddock, 22, from Mold in Flintshire, was caught on police video putting on her make-up while driving at 32mph. She was fined £200 plus £55 costs after she pleaded guilty to a charge of careless driving.

In January 2005 a motorist from Tyneside was fined £60 and £100 costs after she was spotted holding an apple while driving.

In 2000 Linda Smart was issued with a £20 fine by Wiltshire police for drinking from a bottle of water as she pulled away at a set of traffic lights.

The Driving Standards Agency said: “The proposal is there for the safety of drivers and other road users. The Highway Code proposals are not final and will be reviewed.”