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Drivers who smoke at the wheel to be hit with £60 fine and three penalty points
Last updated at 18:22pm on 28.09.07
Drivers who smoke at the wheel could face prosecution
Drivers who smoke at the wheel could face prosecution under changes to the Highway Code.
Lighting-up at the wheel has been added to the list of "distractions" which police and lawyers can cite in court when seeking a conviction for a traffic offence.
It joins eating and drinking, "inserting a cassette or CD or tuning a radio", "arguing with your passengers or other road users", trying to read maps, and - even playing loud music - most, if not all, of which have featured in successful prosecutions.
High-profile cases have involved motorists eating apples, Kit-Kats and sausage rolls.
Up to one in four UK adults smoke, which could mean more than eight million of the nation's 33 million motorists are at risk.
Brian James, road traffic chairman of the Magistrates Association, said that although the code carries no legal force, failure to observe its advice could be used as evidence that an offence had been committed.
The new Highway Code, the first for eight years, has increased in size by about 50 per cent and contains 29 more rules. There is also a new section for novice drivers.
Andrew Howard, the AA's head of road safety, said last night: "The Highway Code is the definitive guide to safe and lawful road use.
"It has grown since 1931 from 18 pages to 135, reflecting the complexities of modern motoring.
"A major change is the inclusion of smoking at the wheel as behaviour that police may interpret as a distraction and failure to be in proper control of the vehicle.
"It can - and no doubt will - be used in court as corroborating evidence."
A recent report by academics at Brunel University warned that car crashes could rise as the ban on smoking in public places leads more people to take a drag at the wheel.
It said smokers drive 23 per cent faster and are more inconsistent than non-smokers.
The report for insurance company Privilege reinforced growing calls for smoking while driving top be made a criminal offence like using a mobile phone, which now attracts three penalty points and a £60 fine.
Supporters say holding a cigarette is equally dangerous.
The code's new section for novice drivers tells them:
- If you are driving with passengers, you are responsible for their safety;
- Don't let them distract you or encourage you to take risks;
- Never show off or try to compete with other drivers, particularly if they are driving badly.
• Only one in 20 accidents are caused by drivers breaking the speed limit, Government figures showed yesterday.
A failure to look properly at the road and traffic is a bigger reason. It was a contributory factor in more than a third of accidents and one in five deaths last year, according to the Transport Department.
Reader views (34)
I couldnt agree more with the view that we do seem to have moved from the criminalisation of actions that cause direct harm, to the criminalisation of behaviour that could potentially cause harm, however small the probability. It is getting rediculous!!! Nothing better to do . . . i think they have they need to pay more attention to "real" criminals/crime instead of pussy footing around with rediculous fines and points for MINOR MINOR actions.
- Helen Smith, Liverpool
I agree with it, as a motorbike rider i am fed up with getting hit in the face by car/van/lorry drivers flicking their cigarette ends out of the window because they will not use the ash tray because it stinks the vehicle out.
All smokers know the days of smoking are finished and it is seen as a disgusting habit, ever kissed a smoker? or smelt their hair.
- Cliff, Hertford
What next, sure ban me from smoking in my own home while your at it! I might get distracted while walking to the kitchen, fall over and get concussion!!!
I've been driving Monday to Friday for a living for 16 years, and also driving on the weekends and I've never had an accident!!!
I wonder how many post mortems for road deaths have come back with the cause of death being smoking?
- Gary Mccurry, Dromore
Sooner or later it will be illegal to fart
whilst driving
- Nicky Underhill, Devon
why wernt eny body told about the no smokeing behind the wheell off a car
i could off bin cort but now i know
- chris martin, great yarmouth
i absolutely agree with James Beat,
AND I DONT EVEN SMOKE !
I arrived here after doing a google on "government bullying smokers" after reading yet another plan to destroy smoking
im sure THEY (the know-all government prats) have calculated that it now costs more in health care than revenue in cigarettes so THEY, in their new age gestapo fervor, have decide that all smokers must be eradicated and boy do the daily attacks on smokers show it
every time this government (i voted for .... shame) has a "bee in its bonnet" it sends out all the troops and the kitchen sink to destoy that bee.
new labour has changed government from being a servant of the nation to being a despot on the nation
have a nice day
Riff.
- Riff, derby
Well I don't know about you other smokers, but I find nicotine withdrawal extremely distracting.
I think forcing a load of smokers to drive around with frayed nerves and quick tempers would be considerably more dangerous than allowing them to smoke!
I'm sure there are hundreds of other distracting things that people routinely do whilst driving, why are smokers being picked on yet again?
I smoke around 20 a day. I consider myself to be something of an expert at it, and I can do it without thinking. I do not get distracted from my driving by smoking.
As a smoker, I pay around £2000 a year more than the equivalent non smoker, and I'm sick of my own government bullying me.
Can't they pick on someone else for a change?
- James Beat, Birmingham England
Mr Brown was on the news again tonight saying that other countries
should have a fair democratic government! Ha, what a joke.
We elect a government to run the country and that government gives us rules to live by, fair enough. without rules no-one would live fairly.
But when the rules we are given are pointless why should we obey them. It is now advisory not to smoke while driving, which gives the police free reign to charge us if we don't indicate when crossing lanes on a motorway and the like, its esier than catching rapists i suppose. It allows them to reach their arrest targets (that the supposedly don't have ), and I wonder who sets those targets, yeah no prizes.
- Andrew Paton, Kings Lynn
I totally agree with you both! Even as a non smoker, when we go out for family meals etc the quality time that we try and spend is broken up with every one rushing out for a fag! Now even behind the wheel! It's pathetic, the government is teaching the public, young and old to lie! No wonder this world is getting worse by the minute, all to do with control and money.
- Sarah, Southampton, England
This Government is going from the sublime to the ridiculous. How about concentrating on the real offenders who are shooting down young people. Is this an easy cop out to make more revenue now that they are losing the high taxes on the people who have given up smoking. I agree with Jeff from Llandudno, more stress will be caused by commuters going home from a hard day's work and smoking to help them to unwind. Is there anyone out there that can patent a handsfree smoking device, just like the handsfree mobile one. I for one would purchase one.
- Lynne, Porthcawl, Wales
Absolute invasion of our liberties. The UK Labour Government has become too invasive in our personal lives and freedom of choice. No smoking in pubs or restaurants and now the only haven some people have; that is to say their cars, they can no longer excercise their freedom of choice wanting to smoke. The people should rise to this and express this gross violation of human rights and put an end to all this. Lobby your MPs.
- Arif, Stockport, UK
As a smoker who can't smoke at home, and now not at a pub, smoking while driving is one of my life's little pleasures, I think this ban is going over the top. Are we going to have crazy rules like "spending more than 5 seconds opening and adjusting your sun visor, will be seen as an uneccersary and distracting action". I don't find smoking a major distraction, any more than having unruly kids in the car... I doubt this rule will ever be accepted by the public.. pubs, clubs etc.. fair enough, passive smoking, but in the privacy of my own car.. NO THANK YOU. All this will lead to is a bunch of fidgety nicotine hungry drivers constantly looking out for cops while ignoring other things like other cars and pedestrians, all the while holding their cigs under the steering wheel and driving with their thumbs.. this ban is taking the nanny state too far.
- Jeff, Llandudno, Wales
So does your government hold your hand to when crossing the street? It is scary when every little aspect of your life is regulated by people in office.
- Andy Jordan, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Having a crying baby in the car can be very dangerous and distracting, maybe you should ban smokers from having children.
- Ann, Enfield
How about driving while other cars are on the road? Over half of all accidents involve other vehicles. Surely we must implore our government to protect us and provide us all our own personal roads.
Ridiculous, petty and with no basis in any scientifically established fact.
- Wayne, Rotherham, England
My message to the meddling busybodies who want a Communist diktat against smoking whilst driving is - why don't they lobby to have all geared cars banned instantly. Considering drivers have to take one hand off the wheel to change gear - surely that fulfils their definition of a distraction?
And Keith Simpson is absolutely correct - speed cameras [alias that double-whammy of revenue raising and motorist punishing] are an enormous distraction to drivers. And so is the forest of road signs stuck onto lampposts constantly bombarding drivers with messages such as 'turn off your mobile phone' - and 'watch your speed'. Whatever next - little arrows painted in the road showing us dimwitted drivers which direction to drive in?
- Jill, London, Teddington, UK
Is applying make-up whilst driving an offence, as I see this practice about 5 times a day in London.
- Malcolm, Chingford
Once again, this labour government is hell-bent on controlling the rights of the individual. No other government, ever, has been responsible for introducing such a plethora of laws specifically directed at spoiling everyone's normal everyday life. Smoking whilst at the wheel of a car is absolutely no more of a danger than that caused by fiddling with all of the superfluous gadgets fitted to the modern vehicle. I would agree that if an accident is proved to be the result of, for example, a driver dropping a cigarette and losing control because he/she was searching on the floor for it, then the driver should be prosecuted. However, to introduce laws to forbid smoking at the wheel will be one step nearer to the totalitarian police state which this country is on the verge of becoming.
- Jim, Dunstable UK
What next? Screaming kids in the back seat. Nothing better to do. Where do these things originate?
- Mick Read, Peachland, Canada
We seem to have moved from the criminalisation of actions that cause direct harm, to the criminalisation of behaviour that could potentially cause harm, however small the probability.
It's yet another worrying step towards authoritarianism and only a short intellectual leap from there to the criminalisation of free speech and thought.
- Eric Murphy, London, UK
Who's going to enforce this, since we have no traffic police anymore?
- Jim, London
Fine. Then remove all the radios out of cars. And while you are at it remove all young children who when yelling "are we there yet?" cause a distraction to the driver.
- Kara Tyson, Mobile, AL USA
"Smokers drive 23 per cent faster..."
What utter rubbish. How did these complete fools come up with that statistic?
- Gary, Kent
I agree totally with this, smoking is a distraction. We have banned smoking from public places which is the best thing the present government have done, so all that is left is to make it compulsory for all smokers to be traffic wardens and then we can hate them even more!
- Mike Hock, London
I have noticed an increase in the use of large electronic motorway signage being used to inform drivers of how far away in miles and time a certain junction is. These are meant to be used for urgent information only, such as accidents / congestion. Isn't this the most pointless form of distraction for motorway drivers imaginable - using a sign for the sake of it? The highways agency / powers that be should start practicing what they preach before forcing petty laws on drivers.
- We, Kent
Lets get them to enforce MOBILE telephones law as this is more danger to drivers, as they do not concentrate. Then they can think about bring in stupid laws such as this. Next you will not be allowed to talk to the passenger ?
- Terry Chambers, London
And presumably they're actually going to increase the number of traffic police back to the levels they were 10 years ago (it's halved in London) so they can enforce this? No, thought not, let's get some more pointless PCSOs to write parking fines instead.
- Terry Roll, London
So will this be as effectively enforced as the mobile ban which clearly people do not care about?
- Stuart, London
You drive a car to get where you are going ALIVE and without being a danger to others. There are a few basics to driving and distractions such as smoking are one of them. This was long overdue and I agree with a smoking ban. Think about the worst excuse to tell a cop, I swerved because I dropped my cigarette. How many times has that one been used?
- Greg, Munich Germany
I agree that smoking can be a dangerous distraction when driving, but this rule is utterly pointless as, with so many other laws, it will simply not be enforced.
- Philip, London, England
Of course, it's mad. The clearest way to avoid private vehicle accidents would be to ban private vehicles. However that is electorally unacceptable so the nanny state behaves like Don Quixote. It is a statistical fact that most accidents are caused by sober, non-smoking drivers - so why not ban them?
- Peter Bench, London
Oh my god how many more things are they going to ban? Soon it's going to be illegal to breath.
- Kell, Bristol
Accidents happen, that's an unfortunate part of life. The health & safety brigade however, will continue to tighten the screws on us all until the pips squeak & we finally give them all their marching orders! At best it is control freakery but at worst it is 'institutional' bullying that is creating victims of us all.
How can we be punished for taking a drink from a bottle [for example] which does not require us to take our eyes off the road when the government causes us to constantly take our eyes off the road to check our speed because of their single minded obsession with speed. Speed cameras are a source of major distraction & consequently accidents, yet to admit that would mean too much egg on too many faces.
- Keith Simpson, Wareham, England
It had to happen. The anti-smoking facists want to tell everyone else that they should live like them, at the risk of being prosecuted.
I note that picking one's nose is not included in what you are not allowed to do at the wheel. Equally dangerous in my book.
The 'evidence' is clearly dogmatic in its approach as I find it somewhat hard to believe that smokers drive 23% faster than everyone else on the road as stated in the article. If that were true, the police would have a field day on the motorway with 25% of the population who smoke being caught approaching 100mph.
- Trevor, London
