Smoking while Driving - Why isn't it illegal?

Question

You can get a fine for eating a kit kat while driving, 3 points for using a mobile. Yet you are allowed to light up and smoke while driving with impunity. Whats more likely to cause a crash, a bit of kitkat on your lap or hot sig ash???

You can't tell me that you are paying attention to the road ahead while you are lighting up, and how do you keep both hands on the wheel while smoking?

Totaly off at a tangent, i was a car salesman for 14 years, The smell of smoke in a car and the nicotine tinge to the interior knocks about 10 to 20% of the trade-in value of a used car.

It says on the front of ciggerett boxes "SMOKING KILLS"

Fine, if you want to kill yourself go for it, just try not to take anyone out with you on the way.

i dont hate smokers, my mum and dad and sister all smoked (dad died of cancer, mum is in a home with alzhimers) i just dont like people smoking around me or my child. I am aware how adictive it is and i sympathise with you all.

Answer 1

smoking while driving is the same as having a lighted blow torch in the car. It should be banned. I have seen police officers smoking while driving. taxi drivers and bus drivers. They should be fined and banned from driving for 3 months minimum. smoking is a distraction. being distracted while driving can kill. Stand in a field and smoke yourself to death if thats what you really want. Let the rest of us live.

Answer 2

And if it were possible for all the smokers in the UK to magically give up smoking overnight would people such as yourself who complain about others enjoying themselves by smoking a cigarette be prepared to pay at least double the amount of income tax that is payable at present via PAYE. I would bet that there are more road accidents caused by people being drunk, on the phone, unwrapping a kitkat or undoing a tin of drink than there ever is by lighting up because as a smoker who is also a driver, and yes I can tell you this, I can honestly say that lighting up has never made me take my eyes off the road or the mirror for one instant and smoking actually increases my alertness and therefor my concentration. You cannot state clearly that lighting up a cigarette makes you take your eyes off the road as you by your own admission are not a smoker and therefor not qualified to make that statement just an assumption which is what all the other non smokers do whilst complaining about us.

Answer 3

I don't think it should be banned.

I used to smoke, including when driving and I didn't see lighting up while driving as any more dangerous than re-tuning the radio.
Cigarette ash is not very hot and will not burn you and smoking does not distract you like talking on a mobile phone does. Also you can smoke and still keep both hands on the wheel for most of the time.
Sure, smoking is bad for you and I don't want have to breath in other peoples smoke but we shouldn't turn this into a witch hunt.

Answer 4

I have now cut back on smoking and become one of those so called social smokers. I used to smoke all the time when driving. I was very good at it. It kept me occupied and alert, no one wants to get burnt, it also kept me fresh. Both hands would still be on the wheel. Any half decent driver is more than capable of driving and smoking. Of course if the driver is not capable, they should of course not be doing it. It is not fair to make it illegal for everybody because of a few retards

Answer 5

Well I'm not sure about the laws in the US, but in Canada so far it is not illegal to use a cell phone, eat a kit kat or smoke a cigarette while driving.

While I believe that laws should be passed to enforce the use of cell phones while driving, I can also agree that smoking while driving can become dangerous.

Seriously though, who actually always drives with both hands on the wheel?

As for going off on a tangent, I see you hate smokers. That is quite obvious. And while you are entitled to hate smokers, unless a smoker is actually preventing you from living your life in any manner, let them be. Unless you understand the power of nicotine and the addiction to smoking, you will never get it. It's easy to be judgmental when you are inside looking out.

Answer 6

I can't smoke at work. If I go outside to smoke there's always someone who will bleat that I'm not pulling my weight, even though I'm in the office an hour before they arrive and still there an hour after they've gone running home to watch some crap on the telly. Even then, my phone is on 24/7 and whilst it's not a common occurrence, yeah It will get answered at 3 a.m.
I can't smoke on a train or a bus, so I drive a car which I realise is not eco-friendly, but I will not be dictated to. Pretty soon we won't be allowed to smoke in pubs either - guess what? you can buy booze in places like Sainsbury's and we'll all drink at home instead.

The Anti-Smoking Nazi Lobby has gone too far.

Answer 7

I dealt with this issue in College, some years ago.

People who smoke are more likely to get into vehicular accidents and other situations because they chose to smoke thus tend to take more risks in life.

So it has nothing to do with dropping a smoke, or lighting one for that matter.

As for the KitKat.. I eat those and drive while on the cell phone.
Smoke too.

Still here after all these years.

You say I am free to go kill myself, well, I never doubted that I had that choice. Too bad so many people in government have decided to "decide" what we the people should and should not do.

Follow the money...

Answer 8

Stress kills also and you sound mad at the world. Stress is gonna get you..... not a smoker lighting up in the car. Quite frankly the drinkers are what really kill in a car, What about the cell phone talker's driving down the highway, they are a bigger detriment then a smoker will ever be.

Answer 9

no doubt it will be illegal soon to smoke anywhere except your own home anyway, then what will all you do gooders moan about?
I am a safer driver with a cigarette than a lot of people I see trying to control screaming kids in the back seat while simultaneously trying to drive a car and talk on their mobile phone (which IS illegal but nothing seems to be done about it)

Answer 10

sure, that is totally legal to smoke even as driving in NJ. Its gotta be, otherwise the line rage deaths might want to multiply geometrically (imagine NJTP at 6:00 PM with a Yankee residing house-interest)

Answer 11

You're kidding, right? You climb into a 2,000 lb machine that burns combustible fossil fuels and fire it up, and you have no problem with that? Enjoy the tobacco windfall tax benefits while they last. And driving one car at a time is enough; try to focus on what's going on in your car -- that should be enough to do for one driver.