Smoking while driving?

Question

I have been looking at petitions for signing online and one person has asked for their petition to be signed for the following :

"Smoking whilst driving is very dangerous and many accidents and dangerous driving is caused by people smoking cigarettes at the wheel, which causes distraction and also inability to manage the car properly. Mainly due to ill steering around corners for fear of burning the car with the cigarette or only using one hand.

Smoking whilst driving should be banned and treated the same as using a mobile phone when driving."

Personally I say that (apart from my mobile phone - which I completely agree with not being allowed to use whilst driving) I can use and do what I like in the car that I pay my hard earned cash for - in the 16 years since I passed my test I have not had any accidents because I have been smoking

Whats your opinion????

Answer 1

Smoking SHOULD be (not must) avoided while driving.

WHY it should be?

1) First of all, smoking means getting nicotine into your body. Nicotine is a chemical substance.

Nicotine changes how your brain and your body function. Nicotine can both invigorate and relax a smoker, depending on how much and how often they smoke.

So for that reason, smoking while driving is similar to driving under the influence of drugs. Would you let someone who has been on ectasy to drive?

But then some people are so tolerated that they don't notice the effects of nicotine anymore.

2) Holding a cigarette in one hand and trying not to let the lite side touches the interior while normal driving may not seem difficult.BUT what if :

- the car in front of you suddenly stopped (eg in emergency), you stopped in time but you dropped the cigarette, you need to pick it up. That's one distraction. And may lead to another accident?

- you are unforturnate enough to be trapped (maybe unconscious too) inside a car during an accident. The car was completed wrecked and there was fuel leak, AND your cigarette is still lite. Fire and explosions maybe?

Above are just 2 examples of how may having a cigarette lead to accident.

It may not be you that caused the accident, but having a cigarette in your hand can slow you reaction time. Most people use TWO hands to steer in emergencies.

3) You feel too relaxed that you don't remember that you are operating a heavy machinery that has potential to injure someone.

4) Nicotine initially causes a rapid release of adrenaline. So your adrenaline level goes up.

5) Smoke is well known trigger for some respiratory diseases eg asthma.
So what if the smoke trigger an asthma attack (or even just to cause a bout of coughing) that is severe enough to cause you UNABLE to concentrate and hence, drive safely.

6) The smoke accumulated in the car. Your eyes can be irritated causing a visual disturbance.



REASON WHY smoking ban while driving is NOT NECESSARY (but still should).

1) Sometimes it calms a driver.

2) Some drivers are very experienced in diving that they can multitask while driving.

3) Majority of the drivers do not smoke and drive anyway.


That's enough of me writing.

By the way, if you sell your car, some people prefer the previous owner to be non-smokers.So that the car doesn't stink!


Finally, I don't think smoking is a good thing in the first place regardless of where you smoke. Having read all the scienticfic journals regarding samoking, SMOKING ALMOST GUARANTEER you the chance of getting some kinds of respiratory diseases, some of which are fatal and have no cure. In order to treat these mostly self-induced diseases, health service has less resources to save some other patients' lives.

Answer 2

1

Answer 3

I don't think its as dangerous as some things that I see or have experienced! Screaming kids, loose dogs, mobile phones drinks in cans and drivers who can't talk to a passenger without facing them or who drive one-handed with or without a cigarette! The dangerous part is lighting up the cigarette and putting it out! Most smokers can and do drive with both hands on the wheel! My hubby has been driving nearly 40 years and is now a coach driver(not allowed to smoke) and has never had an accident because of smoking! in 20 I haven't either but that's because I rarely smoke when driving. I think a ban would be pretty difficult to enforce but if I was stopped for it then I'd take the punishment I deserved!

Answer 4

This is clearly from a person who has never smoked cigarettes. To a smoker, that cigarette in their hand is an extension of their hand. They are so used to it they need to make no conscious adjustments when handling the wheel of an automobile. The only time they pay extra attention to that cigarette is when they are putting one out. This requires as much inattention to the road as looking briefly to change a radio station on your car stereo. Even lighting it is an automatic reflex that they can do without having to look away from the road. This just might be the absolute silliest thing I have ever heard when it comes to the crusade against smokers.

Where will the government influence on our personal lives stop? When there are alarms in your own home that signal the police station when you light up? I'm a smoker that has quit several times, for years at a time, and here I am trying to quit again. I am so conscientious about making sure my smoking offends or affects no one but me that it's gotten to the point of being ludricrous. If I'm taking my mother to do errands I don't smoke in my own car the entire day so she won't have to smell a trace of it when she gets in. No, I'm not asking for a medal, but I think I have the right to ask the Cigarette Police to take a break, honestly - most of us are doing the best we can these days.

Answer 5

Personally, I don't smoke but you raise a valid point ... any kind of distraction behind the wheel is unsafe (saw a woman the other day applying her make-up while she was driving and I can't tell you the number of times I've been almost mowed over by some clown talking on his/her cell phone when I am trying to walk across the street).

Cigarette smoking ranks right up with using a cellular phone, drinking that morning coffee, reading the mail, fumbling with the CD player, checking a street map and so on. Common sense dictates that these things distract a driver, but the majority of people just don't listen. It's going to take somebody killing some poor kid for him/her to finally wake up and smell the coffee. Banning smoking etc. while driving would be impossible to police.

Answer 6

SHOULD BE BANNED.

1) Nothing worse than some idiot smoking 2 cars ahead of you, while sitting in traffic, and you have to smell that stench, or close windows and turn on a/c.

2) How about those scumbags that throw their cigs out the window, and they smack off of your car? Especially after your car is just washed and waxed? I spent an entire day on my car, I don't want that garbage hitting my paint or windshield.

3) People cannot drive as it is, why have any more distraction? 95% of the people in USA would NOT pass a German driving test.

4) Driving is a privilige, not a right. Hang up your damn cellphone, stop smoking and be safe.

Answer 7

Well, when I smoked, which I haven't done since Jan. 71, I decided to light up
while I was driving. Bad move. I dropped the cigarette on the carpet in heavy
traffic. I missed the ashtray entirely. I never did that again. 2 years ago a woman on the highway was in a red sports car driving next to us. She had a cell phone, coffee, & a cigarette. Now who do you suppose was doing the driving? She almost hit us. We got ahead of her and could see she was still weaving back and forth. About a week later, in our town paper, was the story of a woman, in a red sports car, cigarette, coffee and cell phone. She became airborne and landed 3 lanes plus a wide grassy divider. Now do you suppose
she was driving safe. I don't think she survived and she almost took other
people with her.

Answer 8

Some people now believe that smoking while driving can cause accidents. A smoking driver drops a cigarette and then reaches for it. This distracts their attention from what's happening around them and wham! Wake up hours later in Accident and Emergency. The occupiers of the other four vehicles are all dead.

Answer 9

I've been in 3 accidents in my lifetime, all hit from the rear, I've never been "at fault".

I've been driving since 1979, when I was 15.

I started smoking when I was 12; that was 1976. My being a smoker doesn't seem to have detrimented my safe driving record.

My siser's story is very similar.

Any questions?

Answer 10

Of course smoking while driving should be illegal. If not just for safety reasons then for a little bit of fairness in the law.

Why should it be illegal to eat or drink (soft drinks, water, coffee, whatever) whilst driving, but not illegal to smoke? Which would you rather drop in your lap whilst driving- a sandwich or a lit cigarette?

I say sign it and let's have some stability and a sense of continuity and fairness in the laws our country is governed by.

PS: In response to GW above, I see your point about the absurdity of banning people arguing in cars and such, but applying makeup while driving SHOULD be illegal. Applying makeup is not a necessity or something that can't be helped (like an argument breaking out, for instance) and really is unsafe. Think about it- presumably people look at themselves in the mirror while they apply make-up? Well in that case they're not focusing on the road. Mowing a kid down with your car and then telling the judge in court it was because you were applying your makeup isn't going to fly, is it?