Put that fag out!!!!!

Honest John Back Room » Motoring discussion
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Wed 24 Mar 2010 07:48
Put that fag out!!!!! - safedriver

are you a smoking driver who feels persecuted?

they are after you;-)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/8583551.stm

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Wed 24 Mar 2010 08:35
Put that fag out!!!!! - b308

how in the heck are they going to police it i wonder... about time they got priorities right... get the bad drivers off the road before starting on things like this...

No objection to smoking in cars... as long as

1. its not mine

2. i'm not in it when they are doing it... and

3. they don't chuck the ash or fag end out of the window but use the ashtray...

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Wed 24 Mar 2010 08:52
Put that fag out!!!!! - safedriver
how in the heck are they going to police it i wonder...

the same way they don't police mobile phones, seat belts, advanced stop line offences, speeding etc, i suppose. (i'm not getting at individual Pcs here, but iMho far more driving offences occur than ever come to the attention of the law).

Like you i have no objection to people smoking in cars as long as they are considerate, and not distracted from driving, but that's one of the problems with it, i suppose. Smoking is always liable to be distracting. there's smoke in the eyes, lighting up, stubbing out, hot ash falling off etc.

i know that the story is about a public health, rather than driving, but i'm not sure that smoking and driving mixes any better than eating and driving.

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Wed 24 Mar 2010 09:12
Put that fag out!!!!! - b308

considering how long its been going on (since the dawn of motoring i suspect) there are very few cases publicised where smoking has contributed to an accident, so i would say that stopping people using a mobile or texting would be far more important than stopping them smoking... i honestly don't see smoking as anywhere near as dangerous as those two except from the passive smoker point of view which is more of a health issue rather than an accident issue... and i don't see that as part of the Police's remit.

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Wed 24 Mar 2010 09:30
Put that fag out!!!!! - safedriver

You are quite correct regarding the number of publicised cases, though this might have something to do with the fact that phoning is a separate offence, where any smoking offence comes under driving without due care or whatever.

i really see smoking and driving as part of a continuum of stuff drivers are doing when they should be driving (phoning, controlling kids, fiddling with ice/sat navs, reading etc).

Just to emphasise, i don't mind people smoking in their cars (although when i was a smoker, i found it hard to cope with lighting up, dealing with ash, and stubbing out without being distracted so i usually stopped for a fag), but they have to pay attention to controlling their ton or so of potential lethal weapon, while watching out for other idiots.

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Wed 24 Mar 2010 11:43
Put that fag out!!!!! - Sofa Spud

I don't smoke, never have done. I can't really say whether smoking in vehicles should be banned or not - I wouldn't mind if it was banned, though.

But if they do decide to ban smoking behind the wheel, it should apply to any type of vehicle at all times.

The crucial thing about using phones while driving is that the stage was reached where a lot of people were doing it and spending lots of time on the phone. I've been followed for 15 miles by a driver who was on their phone all that time. Lighting up a cigarette or swigging from a water bottle might distract a driver, but only for a few seconds. If they're using a hand-held mobile, they might be distracted for 10 minutes at a time, several times a day.

Edited by Sofa Spud on 24/03/2010 at 11:46

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Wed 24 Mar 2010 11:51
Put that fag out!!!!! - b308

Thanks SS, thats the point I was making... there are levels of danger, and using mobiles seems to be at a much higher level than smoking at the wheel and therefore should be a higher priority, unless someone can prove otherwise?

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Wed 24 Mar 2010 12:44
Put that fag out!!!!! - ijws15

The current smoking legislation is enforced by environmental health - not by the police.

I suspect this will go the same way - i.e. not be enforced at all.

Funniest side effect of the smoking ban - my employer had to take panels OUT of the smoking shelter it provides as it was more than 50% enclosed and hence covered by the ban!

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Wed 24 Mar 2010 14:31
Put that fag out!!!!! - theterranaut

Pointless really as others have said- we all see drivers flouting the mobile phone ban because they wont get caught.

And if its really to protect the kids, it would make more sense to ban cigs in the home; chances are the kids would spend more time in contact with smoke there.

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Wed 24 Mar 2010 18:52
Put that fag out!!!!! - Ben 10

Saw a woman behind me at set of lights today. Mobile in one hand and fag in the other.

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Thu 25 Mar 2010 00:41
Put that fag out!!!!! - primeradriver

Don't have a problem at all with others smoking in cars, and I certainly don't care what they do to their offspring.

However I feel it's only right that if they throw out a fag and it manages to make my car smell of smoke (not often but it does happen from time to time) that I should be allowed to approach their car, stick my backside through their open window and f*** into their car.

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Sun 28 Mar 2010 12:29
Put that fag out!!!!! - oldgit

Saw a woman behind me at set of lights today. Mobile in one hand and fag in the other.

They've always said women were good at multi-tasking, have they not? This just confirms it.

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Mon 29 Mar 2010 10:52
Put that fag out!!!!! - Ben 10

" They've always said women were good at multi-tasking, have they not?"

They, being women presumably. Driving not being one of them, unless this specimen was an octopus.;-)

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Thu 25 Mar 2010 07:04
Put that fag out!!!!! - Herr Sandwichmann

Can't see how this is workable. IMHO smoking is an unpleasant habit, but what people choose to do in the privacy of their motors is surely up to them. Only way to really tackle this is to ban tobacco outright, but watch out for fuel duty, road tax, duty on alcohol, etc going through the roof...

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Thu 25 Mar 2010 07:30
Put that fag out!!!!! - hbosken

The "no smoking" law has been in force in Scotland for a few years now - banning smoking in vans, lorries, buses, taxis, yet I've still to hear of anyone actually being fined for ignoring the law.

I admit some restraint about smoking when other people - especially kids who don't have a voice or confidence to speak up against it - are in the vehicle.

But to think about an out and out ban is just another example of the bully state he UK is turning into.

Let's ban expense fiddles by government ministers first.

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Fri 26 Mar 2010 00:00
Put that fag out!!!!! - Bromptonaut

As the BBC link makes clear this proposal is about child health and the risks of passive smoking in the confined space of a car, not the safety issues of lighting up etc.

I'd be quite happy to see parents who subject their kids to ciggy smoke in cars prosecuted for child abuse but to ban all smoking in cars seems like unenforceable overkill.

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Sat 27 Mar 2010 19:24
Put that fag out!!!!! - Roly93

I am an ex-smoker, but not the kind which is usually madly anti-smoking as is so often the case. It really annoys me that the government think they can legislate their way around everything. If people want to smoke in their cars then fine.

There is no evidence that it is more significantly distracing than many other things such as mobile or other in-car gadgets.

With regard to the health issues, provided people are educated as to how damaging it can be to the health of children, it should still be the responsibility of parents to not do it. You cant legislate your way around ignorance I'm afraid.

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Sat 27 Mar 2010 19:57
Put that fag out!!!!! - diddy1234

Yet another example of common sense gone out of the window and an example of a dictatorship where decisions have to be dictated by laws.

Maybe I am getting old but what ever happened to responsability and moralls ?

Edited by diddy1234 on 27/03/2010 at 19:59

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Mon 29 Mar 2010 08:21
Put that fag out!!!!! - hbosken

Maybe I am getting old but what ever happened to responsability and moralls ?

Went out the window when our political leaders decided to set examples by fiddling expenses

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Mon 29 Mar 2010 08:56
Put that fag out!!!!! - Herr Sandwichmann

Yet another example of common sense gone out of the window and an example of a dictatorship where decisions have to be dictated by laws.

Maybe I am getting old but what ever happened to responsability and moralls ?

iirc this was suggested by a medical body, not the govt. RE dictatorship, last time I checked the UK was a democracy...

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Mon 29 Mar 2010 17:29
Put that fag out!!!!! - DP

Like the wider smoking ban, which was a purely government led "initiative", this is the kind of thing you prioritise and bring in when everything else is sorted. i.e:

The economy is healthy

Kids aren't dying through failing social services

People aren't dying in dirty hospitals or waiting for operations

Gangs don't run vast swathes of our inner cities

etc etc

This has been New Labour all over from day 1. Ignore the hard/difficult/serious stuff in favour of clobbering the generally law abiding (and easiest to catch) for minor infringements. Then use the statistics this generates to make their various nonsensical targets look like they're worth something.

I have always said, no government has the right to legislate on smoking while it condones it by happily spending the billions in tax revenue it generates. Ban it outright, or let people get on with it. Anything else is hypocrisy.

Edited by DP on 29/03/2010 at 17:30

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Tue 30 Mar 2010 15:00
Put that fag out!!!!! - Statistical outlier

DP, the smoking ban is a godsend to those of us that don't want our health badly affected and our clothes ruined by the stink of cigarettes.

It's a free country, and you and anyone else should be free to smoke wherever it causes no harm to others. The cost to the NHS argument doesn't work, you pay for it in tax, and it's your shout if you feel smoking is an acceptable risk / benefit for you. None of my business.

I do rejoice that you can no longer force your dangerous and unplesant habit on me where I don't have a choice whether to be there or not. I was in Belguim a few weeks ago where it's not banned and my it's unplesant, I'd forgotten just how much so.

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Tue 30 Mar 2010 15:22
Put that fag out!!!!! - oilrag

It IS great to go in Cost Coffee in the City and relax on a Saturday Morning. I`m sure some smokers had consideration but there were enough unfortunately to literally exclude people with asthma from public buildings.

When the smoking ban came in I found I had a whole new life experience - being able to have a coffee or a meal without the inevitable plumes of smoke.

A few weeks back when it was -6c here, I was in Costa Coffee and there were people sitting freezing outside but puffing out blue plumes of smoke across the precinct.

No regard for others having to walk through it to get in.

The sooner they have to wear catalytic converter helmets the better.

;-)

Edited by oilrag on 30/03/2010 at 15:26

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Tue 30 Mar 2010 15:42
Put that fag out!!!!! - oilrag

You can write stuff like that now - a little reality with an overlay of humour. But well meaning overall.

The `Ranters` seem to have cleared off the forum.

ha!

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Wed 31 Mar 2010 09:41
Put that fag out!!!!! - b308

Summarises my views very nicely, you two! As an asthmatic I could only stay in some places for a short time before leaving... its nice to be able to stay on a bit longer!

Would agree with the Belgium thing, same in Germany and France... makes you apreciate what we've got!

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