Smoking while driving… ban or butt out?

COMMENT

There are various fines in Australia (depending on the state) for drivers caught smoking with passengers under 18. These laws are in place to help protect children from exposure to second-hand cigarette smoke.

When someone smokes in the enclosed space of a car, passengers are exposed to toxic air. The air quality is still deemed hazardous, even with the window down.

But what if children aren't in the car? Should the driver be permitted to smoke then, if he or she is the only occupant?

Now, we're not here to get all preachy and tell you to stop smoking. It's your right to smoke.

But should you smoke and drive concurrently?

Distracted driving is a growing concern in Australia. When we talk of distracted driving, usually drink-driving or texting when driving, comes to mind.

Drinking slows down the activity of the central nervous system, causing reduced reaction times and poor concentration – thus affecting driving capabilities.

Smoking doesn't have this near-immediate effect on the nervous system, but that doesn't mean it doesn't distract a driver.

The Tobacco Industry of Australia has even suggested that distraction of drivers through smoking may be greater than the distraction caused by using a mobile phone when driving.

Think about it... smoking requires a lot of visual distraction. You have to firstly locate the cigarettes, which may not even be easily accessible. Perhaps they're shoved in the glove box or thrown in the back seat?  Then you have to light the cigarette, take a puff and hold it.

And every time you raise the cigarette to your lips, you take one hand off the steering wheel. The distractions associated with this entire process are surely similar to sending off a text message while driving?

Smoking while driving also means that ash and embers can easily fly off at any stage and cause burns. A moment of pain can mean a moment of distraction on the road.

People have been known to be distracted by all sorts of obscure things leading to collision.

Only recently – in what might have been life imitating an AAMI commercial – a young Sydney driver leaped from her moving vehicle after finding a Huntsman spider on her lap, and her car ended up head-first in water.

Imagine if you burn yourself with a cigarette – you may have a similar reaction of shock. And who knows where your car may end up!

Leaving aside the safety issue, which is of primary importance of course, what about the amenity of others who may have to endure the stale smell of tobacco smoke, which hangs around in the soft upholstery of cars for years?

Would you be happy if your other half smokes in your car – and after the romance is over your left with a permanent olfactory reminder of his/her former presence in your life. And selling a car that stinks is harder than selling one that doesn't, quite obviously.

But if we enforce a ban on smoking while driving, are we trying to control adults to the point of extremity?

Should we just butt out of their business?  Or is this our business too?