Smoking to be made illegal while driving??

The Highwayman

anthonyk.is wrote: »

Did anyone else hear about this on the news this morning? Aparently the government are trying to illegalise smoking while driving because thay said its a distraction........... In other words it's just another reason for fining people!!!

Thoughts on this???

If using your phone is distracting and you can be fined for doing so then one would imagine that smoking is just as distracting

Antomus Prime

The Highwayman wrote: »

If using your phone is distracting and you can be fined for doing so then one would imagine that smoking is just as distracting

I completely disagree, to use the phone you need one hand constantly off the wheel, or gerastick, and youre listening to someone which means youre not fully concentrating on the surroundings.... I'm sure any smoker will agree with me that it doesnt take alot of concentration or brain power to take a drag of a smoke every 20 seconds.....

Cherrycola

Smoking while driving is no more distracting than drinking a cup of hot coffee while driving, both have the potential to burn the bollox off you if you drop them, are they going to ban drinking coffee/eating while driving too?

The problem i have with the mobile phone ban, is that they have only banned us from holding a mobile phone while driving, not using a mobile fullstop, so therefore the issue is with not having both hands on the wheel, and not the distraction of actually making or receiving a call and holding a conversation.

Personally i think that talking on the phone, whether hand held or hands free, is more distracting to a driver and their ability to drive safely and react quickly, than smoking, eating, or drinking a coffee!!

If its only about having both hands on the wheel, then we should all be driving automatic cars too, as changing gears while driving could technically be classed as driving with undue care and attention too!
Putting on sunglasses, flipping down the visor, moving your seat position, coughing into one hand, sneezing(jesus, my eyes will be closed too!), rubbing your eye, swatting a wasp, the list goes on and on and on!

happypants

Mellio wrote: »

Well I think it should bruoght in cos it is a distraction:

Pulling the cigarette out of the box needs both hands generally or one if your really good.

lighting the cigarette - lighter or car lighter needs forther attention

smoke in one hand no inidicators at roundabouts, cant be bothered.


The above for me really is not an issue just points but the biggest issue for me to bring this in is to stop parents from smoking in the cars whether windows are down or not while kids are in the back or front as they have no choice.

It was brought into the work place for helath and safety reasons and kids should be looked at in the same light.

Anyway hope they do bring it in....

So people who smoke don't use indicators on roundabouts?? What?

If you're getting really technical- changing gears requires attention, checking mirrors requires attention, using indicators requires attention, you worrying about if the people in the car next to you are smoking requires attention. Its complete habit for smokers, as much as any aspect of driving is and lighting one doesn't take up full attention.

If someone happens to drop a cigarette whilst driving common sense would hope they would pull in when safe to do so, just like if someone spilt their morning coffee down the front of their shirt etc. Ban coffee drinking too actually.

jimthemental

CrazyRabbit wrote: »

And as a motorcyclist, there's been two occasions where lit cigarettes have been flicked out of car windows and landed on me. The 2nd time, it burnt a hole in my leggings and they had to be replaced at a cost of €160 to me.

Oh, and anything the discourages people from slowly killing themselves and increasing everyones health insurance costs gets my vote.

Wow, there's two views I thought I would never see so close together. Surely bikers would not begrudge people a smoke when we're considering health alone!

Augmerson

This just in from RTE News: Everything is now illegal!

Muckster

Hopefully soon there will be robots that can drive for us and we can smoke, drink, and text all we want.