Smoking at the wheel

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Sun 26 Nov 2017 16:52
Smoking at the wheel - hillman

The latest eciggies let out such a volume of smoke that smoking them at the wheel must be impossible. I first saw a driver smoking one in a parked car with the window open. The car was next to me and I had difficulty seeing the smoker. Using a mobile phone while driving is illegal; how about smoking an ordinary cigarette ? My car, ten years old, has a cigar lighter. Do new cars have a cigar lighter?

Edited by hillman on 26/11/2017 at 16:52

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Sun 26 Nov 2017 17:16
Smoking at the wheel - RT

Do new cars have a cigar lighter?

It's been renamed a 12v accessory socket - often with no heated element provided.

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Sun 26 Nov 2017 17:17
Smoking at the wheel - argybargy

Last couple of cars I've owned have had the 12v outlet but no cigar lighter to fit inside; unlike in the old days, when polluting the interior of your car with stinking filth was considered perfectly acceptable.

The handbook for my current vehicle specifically directs that no cigar lighter should be inserted within the outlet, but presumably you can fit one if you're willing to take the risk of blowing your electrics.

Good point about the volumes of smoke emitted by eciggies etc, though. Maybe one day they'll legislate against them and thus further complicate our lives with yet another law that won't be enforced.

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Sun 26 Nov 2017 17:28
Smoking at the wheel - Terry W
I used to smoke and lost count of the clothing ruined by hot ash.

Aside from the obvious nanny state issues, to drive with only one effective hand and split attention between lighting and driving is no better than texting whilst driving.

See it banned with a great fanfare over the millions of lives saved!
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Sun 26 Nov 2017 18:06
Smoking at the wheel - Andrew-T
I used to smoke and lost count of the clothing ruined by hot ash.

.... to say nothing of the consequence of dropping a lighted fag in one's lap while travelling?

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Sun 26 Nov 2017 18:29
Smoking at the wheel - Metropolis.

Heated seats?

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Sun 26 Nov 2017 18:46
Smoking at the wheel - gordonbennet

Give them time, they're gradually moving through the various groups, indoctrinating the proletariat into viewing the target of the year as public enemy number, car smokers arn't going to get away...though they've suffered enough as a group already in my humble, and no i don't smoke and never have.

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Sun 26 Nov 2017 23:53
Smoking at the wheel - argybargy

The poor old Tetley Bittermen were the first to feel the full force of vindictive Nannying authority when widespread coverage of competitive darts on TV revealed that far from being cheeky chappies with a heart of gold and a healthy lifestyle, the working men of this nation waddle when they should be walking, wake up each morning with a hangover from Hell and are struggling to do up their trousers in anything less than a size 48 waist.

Not long after that the Guardians locked their gunsights on Marlboro Man, and diminished him in the eyes of his once adoring audience from "steely eyed conqueror of horses and tanned, superfit rider of the ranges", to "phlegm plagued wimp with nicotine stained fingers, a persistent cough and filthy stumps for teeth".

Now the man who blows harmless (ish) smoke out of his car window is being portrayed as the Mr Magoo of the roads, unable to see beyond his own private pall of stinking smoke and an accident waiting to end in a tangle of twisted metal and ruined vaping equipment.

Who is next, I wonder?

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 09:45
Smoking at the wheel - hillman

I once saw a young mum driving the children to school in a big 4X4. She was waiting at a side road for a gap in the traffic while smoking a fag and screaming at the kids who seemed to be fighting in the back seat.

I once was assigned a company pool car that had been used previously by smokers. The windscreen was so covered with tar inside that oncoming headlights made it difficult to see the road ahead. Someone had tried to wipe it with their hand that just made streaks. I picked it up on Friday night and it was lunch time on Saturday when I was able to find a shop selling Windolene and a duster.

Seriosly, was it the Marlboro Man who died of lung disease ?

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 22:12
Smoking at the wheel - argybargy

I once saw a young mum driving the children to school in a big 4X4. She was waiting at a side road for a gap in the traffic while smoking a fag and screaming at the kids who seemed to be fighting in the back seat.

I once was assigned a company pool car that had been used previously by smokers. The windscreen was so covered with tar inside that oncoming headlights made it difficult to see the road ahead. Someone had tried to wipe it with their hand that just made streaks. I picked it up on Friday night and it was lunch time on Saturday when I was able to find a shop selling Windolene and a duster.

Seriosly, was it the Marlboro Man who died of lung disease ?

According to Wiki a number of different Marlboro Men died of smoking related diseases. Sad and ironic in equal measure.

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 09:30
Smoking at the wheel - Engineer Andy
I used to smoke and lost count of the clothing ruined by hot ash.

.... to say nothing of the consequence of dropping a lighted fag in one's lap while travelling?

I do remember HJ himself saying he couldn't believe that the powers-that-be were banning the use of non-hands-free mobiles in cars but not an items that the user deliberately set on fire and had nowhere for it to be moved to (no time) if the driver (or passeneger) was involved in an accident or the driver had to take avoiding action. As you say, dropping a cigarette in one's lap (like a hot cup of coffee) isn't condusive to safe driving.

I quite agree - smoking by drivers at the very least should be banned. Even with passengers smoking it can still be a hazard in the event of a crash (ignition source).

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 10:10
Smoking at the wheel - gordonbennet

Don't get me wrong, i dislike the smell of smoke, i intently dislike having to use a vehicle after a smoker has been in it, even if they don't actually smoke in the vehicle itself.

But inviting the state to hammer yet more nails into the 'freedom of the individual' coffin only encourages more dictatorial apparatchiks to jump on the bandwagon.

As a slight aside, going to be interesting when the current bunch dictating what is allowed in rapidly diminshing freedoms, speech and actions, find they have become the vilified by their replacements and find their views intolerable and quite possibly illegal.

Edited by gordonbennet on 27/11/2017 at 10:11

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 12:21
Smoking at the wheel - Ian_SW

I'd also noticed a number of cars recently with the driver almost invisible because of the 'smoke' from electronic cigarettes. It seems to be far worse (in terms of obscuring the view) than proper cigarettes, particularly in cold weather

I think the problem is that they are so used to having the drivers window in the 'smokers position (slightly down so ash can be flicked out), that they still do the same with the e-ciggarette but that makes the air colder and hence more visible vapour.

Presumably the police could still do someone doing this to the point of not being able to see out, in the same rules as for driving with frost on all the windows.

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 13:10
Smoking at the wheel - Ethan Edwards

You won't blow the electrics but you will melt the socket. The current it will handle fine, it's just not set up to handle the heat.

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 14:19
Smoking at the wheel - RichT54

Not smoking, but I had smoke coming out of the steering wheel once. MG Midget - I just turned into a junction and the horn came on and wouldn't stop. When the smoke started coming out I pulled the centre boss off the steering wheel (just a clip on fitting) and horn cut off. The connector for the horn had shorted out at the top of the steering column.

Edited by RichT54 on 27/11/2017 at 14:24

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 22:16
Smoking at the wheel - argybargy

You won't blow the electrics but you will melt the socket. The current it will handle fine, it's just not set up to handle the heat.

Righto, thanks for the correction. My missus blew a fuse in our old Focus by inserting the USB plug into the 12v outlet without an adaptor. Just shows how fragile these things are.

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 19:06
Smoking at the wheel - Manatee

Do new cars have a cigar lighter?

My 2017 MX-5 has an accessory socket, but I defy anybody to find it without looking in the Manuel. It's impossible to reach from the driver's seat - or any seat really - being at the furthest point, under the dash, in the upper part of the right side of the passenger footwell. I use it for my phone charger, but I have never seen it!

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Mon 27 Nov 2017 22:49
Smoking at the wheel - expat

I have seen drivers not only smoking while driving but making rollups while driving! They hold the bottom of the steering wheel with two fingers and the cigarette paper with the other fingers. Then they put in the tobacco and roll it! How they are able to do it without a serious accident is beyond me.

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Tue 28 Nov 2017 10:17
Smoking at the wheel - nailit

Reminds me of when I used to motorcycle and the pr@ts who flick their cigarette stubs out of the window. Done deliberately sometimes as you spotted them seeing you in the mirror, was bad enough if it only bounced off your bike or clothing but the fear of it getting down your neck or through your partially open visor !!!! Twas a bit annoying grrr.

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Tue 28 Nov 2017 18:07
Smoking at the wheel - Pondlife

Whenever I see huge clouds of vapour coming from a car window it reminds me of those old cheech and chong movies.

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Mon 4 Dec 2017 19:51
Smoking at the wheel - Bilboman

Whilst removing cigarette lighters is probably the right way to go, I still feel that a properly sited ashtray, in the driver's reach and line of sight, with a moulding to grip a smouldering ciggy and a stubbing area, should be fitted to all cars in the interests of safety. (Cigar smokers tend to have chauffeurs ;-) Planes still have armrest ashtrays precisely so that an illegally lit cigarette can be stubbed out safely rather than down the loo, on the carpet etc.

Tossing a lit cigarette out of a car window in Spain caries a large fine and points on the licence, regardless of whether the car is in a fire-prone forested area or the tarmac jungle. The Spanish highway code strongly advises against smoking inside a car but it'd be hopeless to enforce a law to that effect - particularly as so many cops smoke at the wheel!

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Wed 6 Dec 2017 20:49
Smoking at the wheel - hillman

The manager of the pool car fleet at my employer was a smoker himself. He refused to drive one of the cars that was returned by a smoker - it was just too badly polluted. The tobacco tar had permeated the roof lining, the carpets and the seats. Tobacco tar is very difficult to remove.

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Thu 7 Dec 2017 10:42
Smoking at the wheel - piggy

Tossing a lit cigarette out of a car window in Spain caries a large fine and points on the licence, regardless of whether the car is in a fire-prone forested area or the tarmac jungle. The Spanish highway code strongly advises against smoking inside a car but it'd be hopeless to enforce a law to that effect - particularly as so many cops smoke at the wheel!

We seem to have a gang of four litter police operating on Anglesey now. They carry body cameras and are able to film any transgressions. A lady was supposedly fined £75 for just such an offence, (chucking a cigarette stub out out of her car window).

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